LGBT rights in Rhode Island

Sexual activity

Sexual acts between consenting adults in private have been legal in Rhode Island since anti-sodomy statutes were repealed in 1998. State Representative Edith Ajello sponsored the repeal bill for the seventh time when the Rhode Island House of Representatives passed it in May 1998. After the Rhode Island Senate passed it on June 2, 1998, Governor Lincoln Almond signed it into law.

Recognition of same-sex relationships

Rhode Island allows marriage licenses to same-sex couples since August 1, 2013. On February 20, 2007, Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch issued an opinion holding that same-sex marriages performed in Massachusetts would be recognized in Rhode Island. He said that "his interpretation permitted recognition of the marriages, although he acknowledged that it was just an opinion and did not have the force of law." On May 14, 2012, Gov. Chafee issued an executive ordering directing state agencies to treat same-sex marriages performed out-of-state as the equivalent of marriage. On September 21, 2012, the state's Division of Taxation, ruling in an estate tax case, announced it would treat couples in same-sex marriages or civil unions established in other jurisdictions as legally married, basing its decision on the state's civil unions law and the state's tradition of recognizing marriages validly performed elsewhere.

Rhode Island has provided benefits to same-sex partners of state employees since 2001.

A bill to legalize same-sex marriage was introduced in the legislature on January 11, 2011. Governor Lincoln Chafee announced his support for it. In May 2011, a bill to legalize civil unions for same-sex couples was introduced. It passed the Rhode Island House by a vote of 62-11. It passed the Senate on June 29 by a vote of 21 to 16. Gov. Chafee signed the legislation on July 2, 2011 and the law was made effective from July 1, 2011. As of January 2013, only 68 couples obtained civil union licenses.

Legislation establishing same-sex marriage in Rhode Island was enacted in May 2013, effective August 1. Since August 1, two persons who are parties to a civil union entered into before that date may convert their union into a marriage.

Adoption and parenting

The Rhode Island Family Court routinely grants same sex couple adoptions and has been doing so since at least 1995. Couples need not reside in Rhode Island and may be adopting their own birth child, using a surrogate, or adopting a child already placed with them. A decree lists both partners as parents. After the adoption, the Rhode Island Department of Health, Division of Vital Statistics will amend the birth certificate of a child born in Rhode Island to name both partners as parents. A birth certificate issued in Rhode Island carries the names of both parents, including same-sex parents.

Discrimination protection

Rhode Island law has outlawed discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation since 1995 and on the basis of gender identity or expression since 2001 in employment, credit, housing and public accommodations.

Hate crime laws

Rhode Island has a criminal statute covering acts of violence motivated by both sexual orientation and gender identity or expression.

Gender reassignment

Until October 23, 2014, the Rhode Island Department of Health only altered the gender designation on a person's birth certificate based on documentation of gender reassignment surgery. At that time, new regulations took effect that established that modifying a birth certificate required instead that a medical provider certify that the individual has undergone surgical and/or hormone treatment "or other treatment appropriate for the individual".