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RI Legislators Shift to Civil Unions, Say Marriage Equality Won't Pass

Rhode Island's marriage equality bill is dead for the year, reports the AP.

House Speaker Gordon Fox, who is gay, said the legislation has "no realistic chance" of passing the state's General Assembly this year. Fox, a Providence Democrat, said instead he will support new legislation creating civil unions that would offer substantially the same rights given by the state to married couples.

"This is the best we can do right now," he said. "Full marriage will happen. I'm born and bred in Rhode Island. When I do get married it will be in my home state."

The announcement deeply disappointed those who hoped this would be the year the Ocean State joined five other states in recognizing gay marriage. Groups that led the fight for gay marriage said they wouldn't support any measure that falls short of full marriage.

Fox—who became Rhode Island's first Black and first openly gay House speaker in February 2010—cited opposition in the House and Senate from both parties. Democratic Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed is also considered one of the bill's prime obstacles. Weed supports civil unions.

A group of college students demonstrated this afternoon outside Fox's office in hopes of persuading him to allow a House vote on the marriage bill measure. Fox defended his decision to shift strategy to civil unions, reports the Providence Journal.

"I have been in a domestic partnership for 11 years. I have lived it," said the openly gay Providence Democrat to a crowd of 20 mostly college-age protesters. "And I am not stepping back one iota from my belief that marriage equality is what Rhode Island needs. But I have to balance that with what we can achieve now."

He argued that he supports civil unions knowing that he has a commitment from Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed and Governor Chafee that this would pass this session and give Rhode Islanders "real rights now."

Fox explained the strategy shift in a letter to colleagues this afternoon. Read the full text of Speaker Fox's letter AFTER THE JUMP ...

RI Officer Sentenced to 40 Years for Raping Lesbian While on Duty

And the rape occurred in a police station!

Last April, a Rhode Island jury convicted 39-year-old suspended  Providence Police Officer Marcus Huffman of first-degree sexual assault for the 2007 attack on the then-19-year-old lesbian woman. The former officer even responded to her family’s 911 call  "only to brazenly return as the lead investigating officer after the woman reported the crime."

On Wednesday, Huffman was sentenced to 60 years in prison, with 40 years to serve. Calling the disgraced officer "a wolf in sheep's clothing",  the judge "rejected the tearful minutes-long apology Huffman delivered earlier. 'His greatest regret was getting caught,' Superior Court Judge Netti C. Vogel said."

The Providence Journal provides background. It's not very pleasant.

The Fall River woman, now 22, had been drinking heavily with her friends before they got to Platforms Dance Club on March 17, 2007, and was turned away at the door. Her friends went in without her. At some point, Huffman pulled up to the club in his police cruiser and the woman got into the front seat under the impression he would take her home, she said. He took her to a substation in South Providence around 1 a.m., where the woman said she passed out in the bathroom. She awoke hours later partially disrobed, with throbbing pain in her vagina. Huffman was gone. She went to her aunt’s house nearby where relatives reported the rape. Experts testified that Huffman’s sperm was found on the woman’s underwear, though a rape kit did not show evidence of trauma to the woman’s vagina.

Huffman's history on the force includes charges of excessive force, brutality and sexual abuse.

In 1995, Huffman, then 25, was indicted after being accused of having sex with a 10-year-old girl when he was 16 and 17. The judge threw out the case because she said she found no evidence of coercion. On that same day, in another courtroom, Huffman faced charges that he demanded oral sex from a prostitute. That case was also dismissed. In 1998, Huffman was suspended without pay for failing to show up for a hearing on a complaint that he beat a 14-year-old boy with a billy club. That same year, he was found guilty of three misdemeanor assault charges and given a one-year suspended sentence after he got into an altercation with employees at the Registry of Motor Vehicles.

Despite the felony sexual assault conviction and sentence, "Officer" Marcus Huffman remains suspended without pay "until he has exhausted or terminates any appeals in the case." The disgraced officer's defense attorney says they will appeal the conviction.

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RI Police Officer Convicted of Raping Lesbian While on Duty

Providence's Openly Gay Mayor to Run for Kennedy House Seat

David N. Cicilline, the openly gay mayor of Providence, Rhode Island, announces he will run for the House seat being vacated by Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy, reports the Providence Journal.

"Cicilline became the second Democrat on Saturday to declare his candidacy for the seat, just two days after Kennedy's unexpected announcement that he would not seek relection. Cicilline's announcement, at a hastily called news conference held at the site of swine-flu vaccination clinic, came just hours after William Lynch, chairman of the state Democratic party, said he will seek the seat. Cicilline, 49, the state's first openly gay mayor, said he would not step down as Providence's mayor during his run for Congress. He has held the job for eight years."

Kennedy, the son of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, was first elected to the seat in 1994.

Providence became one of the largest cities in the U.S. to elect an openly gay mayor when Cicilline won his 2002 election. Cicilline was "easily re-elected" in 2006.

Also making news in Providence this week: Rhode Island lawmakers elected House Majority Leader Rep. Gordon D. Fox (Providence) as the state's first black and first openly gay House speaker.