R.I.'s AG backs Mass. same-sex marriages

PROVIDENCE -- The state of Rhode Island should recognize the gay marriages of state employees performed in Massachusetts and extend the same benefits, Attorney General Patrick Lynch said in an advisory opinion.

"Rhode Island will recognize same-sex marriages lawfully performed in Massachusetts as marriages in Rhode Island," Lynch said in an opinion requested by the state Board of Governors for Higher Education and released yesterday.

He said Rhode Island prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and also extends benefits such as health insurance to domestic partners of state employees.

He said that with the absence of a law banning gay marriage, there's no strong reason to deny recognition to gay marriages performed in Massachusetts, the only state where such unions are legal.

Lynch said that the decision was not binding, and that the Board of Governors could disregard it.

"It's essentially guidance; it's my interpretation of the law," he said, adding that this was a new legal area and there is uncertainty about how to handle it.

But Michele Granda, a staff attorney for Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, said she expected most government agencies in Rhode Island to heed the legal advice of the state's top lawyer.

In the letter, Lynch said the Board of Governors asked whether it should recognize the unions of same-sex employees married in Massachusetts.

A spokesman for the board did not immediately comment, and it was unclear what effect Lynch's opinion would have on the board's employees or other state agencies.

Rhode Island law does not allow or bar same-sex unions, and several legislative attempts to ban or legalize gay marriage have failed in recent years. A Massachusetts Superior Court justice decided last fall that Rhode Islanders are allowed to marry there, where the first same-sex marriages were performed in 2004.