PROVIDENCE – R.I. Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch today issued an opinion saying that same-sex marriages lawfully performed in Massachusetts will be recognized as valid in Rhode Island.
The opinion was issued in response to a Feb. 1 request by Jack R. Warner, commissioner of the R.I. Board of Governors for Higher Education.
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In researching his question, “the attorney general reviewed the legal complexities of the federal Full, Faith and Credit Clause as well as principles of Comity,” the opinion said. “That research determined that unless there exists a public policy in this State that is so strong that it will require Rhode Island to except same-sex marriages from the traditional respect and recognition it has shown to a sister state’s laws since the Union’s creation, Rhode Island will recognize such a marriage if it was valid in the state in which it was performed.”
Specifically, Lynch said, he advised Warner that the Board of Governors should comply with the requests of several employees who were so married, who asked that it alter their personnel files to reflect their status as married couples.