Rhode Island Governor Doesn't Want You Attending Your Partner's Funeral
Rhode Island Gov. Don Carcieri has a message for gays and lesbians in his state, and it's about as disgusting a message as any right-wing politician has ever given in this country. Today, the man who might be the worst governor in the entire country vetoed a bill that would have allowed gays and lesbians in the state to plan funeral arrangements for their deceased partners.
That's right, Gov. Carcieri thinks that gay people are too immoral to be allowed to plan the funerals of the people they share their lives with. Homophobic would be putting Gov. Carcieri's actions a bit too mildly. The apt word here is downright hateful and mean.
And the reasoning behind Gov. Carcieri's decision to veto the bill is about as logical as a four-year-old trying to do his parents taxes. Carcieri, you see, thinks that allowing gay people to plan the funerals of their partners is a bit too close to marriage.
"This bill represents a disturbing trend over the past few years of the incremental erosion of the principles surrounding traditional marriage, which is not the preferred way to approach this issue," said Gov. Carcieri.
Here's the problem with the Governor of Rhode Island. He has his head so far up the ass of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), that the man can't grasp that planning the funeral arrangements for a dead partner have absolutely nothing to do with marriage. But that's the next step for organizations like NOM, right? Once they get finished trying to make sure gay people can't be together in life, they can start making sure that gay people can't be together in death.
To make matters even worse, the bill he vetoed would have allowed state medical examiners to release the bodies of gays and lesbians to their surviving partners. But nope, the Governor thinks that's too close to marriage, too.
There is nothing decent about what Gov. Carcieri did today. All this man has left are the sad remnants of a political career that will wrap up in less than a year, with no future other that parading around as a standard-bearer for radical right-wing anti-gay groups. He's Carrie Prejean in eleven months, only without the sex tape (thank GOD!).
Thankfully, Democrats hold a veto proof majority in the Rhode Island legislature, and hopefully stand a very good chance of overturning what might be the most digusting anti-gay law passed in this country since the days of Anita Bryant and her orange juice blitz of the 1970s.
One of those Democrats, Rep. David Segal, blasted Gov. Carcieri as the most soulless politician around.
"I think the man is heartless and this has become a bad joke that has carried on for far too long," Rep. Segal told the Providence Journal.
Heartless. A bad joke. Soulless. Those are what people will remember Gov. Carcieri for. Enjoy your last year in office, Carcieri. When the history books are written, you'll go down as one of the most digsusting political figures this decade has known.
Michael Jones
is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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