Top R.I. democrat settles for civil union bill

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Rhode Island Democratic House Speaker Gordon Fox has abandoned his plans to push same-sex “marriage” legislation during this session, which ends in June. Instead Fox, who is openly gay, said he will support civil union legislation that provides the benefits of marriage to same-sex couples without using the word “marriage.”

“Civil unions are a judicial stepping stone to same-sex ‘marriage,’” Chris Plante, director of the Rhode Island chapter of the National Organization for Marriage, told The Associated Press. “We’ll see what [Fox] comes up with, but we have grave misgivings.”

In at least three states, civil unions have been used as a stepping stone to gay “marriage.”