Source: Associated Press via Boston.com, ABC6, Providence Journal
PROVIDENCE, RI -- The debate over gay marriage -- and gay divorce -- is taking center stage at the Rhode Island State House today as the issue continues a long and tortuous journey through the state's courts.

Lawmakers are talking about several proposed changes to state law.

They range from a bill that would allow gay couples to marry, to a constitutional amendment that would do just the opposite, defining marriage as between one man and one woman.

The House Judiciary Committee was scheduled to hear testimony Wednesday on several bills related to gay unions, including a divorce proposal backed by the Democratic majority leader. A vote is not expected.

Lawmakers filed the divorce bill after Rhode Island's Supreme Court ruled in December that Margaret R. Chambers and Cassandra B. Ormiston, a lesbian couple married in Massachusetts, cannot divorce in Rhode Island, where they live.

Massachusetts is the only state to legalize gay marriage, but marriages from the neighboring state are recognized in Rhode Island.

The Providence couple sought a divorce in Rhode Island Family Court in 2006. But in a December 2007 decision that drew national attention, a divided Supreme Court ruled that Family Court lacked jurisdiction to grant the divorce. The majority opinion said that under the law allowing Family Court to handle divorces, the word “marriage” means just one thing: the union of a man and a woman.

The couple isn't waiting for the legislature to act. Their attempt to get a divorce also proceeds on two different fronts.

While she still lives in Providence, Ormiston is planning to move to Massachusetts soon, a lawyer representing her told the Providence Journal. "She's looking at different options in Massachusetts," the lawyer said. "The sooner the better, because she needs to get divorced."

When the Supreme Court ruled in December, Ormiston said she did not plan to move. "This is my home," she said at the time. "To move to Massachusetts when I own a home here is an unfair and unreasonable burden that no other citizen has to bear."

Separately, Chambers filed a new lawsuit last week seeking a divorce from a different Rhode Island court.

Last week, a lawyer representing Chambers filed a motion asking Superior Court to pose a different question to the Supreme Court: "May the Superior Court properly recognize, for the purpose of entertaining a divorce petition, the marriage of two persons of the same sex who were purportedly married in another state?"

That question "is one of extreme public importance, which is capable of repetition but will evade review unless decided by the Supreme Court," the motion said.

Chambers’ lawyer, Louis M. Pulner, said in an interview with Providence Journal that the December decision was based on the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the 1961 statute that created Family Court, but there would be no such statute to analyze in determining if the Superior Court can grant the divorce.

Superior Court, the state’s main trial court, has broader jurisdiction than Family Court, and it handled all divorces before Family Court was created, Pulner said. “So I’m going back to the court of original jurisdiction,” he said.

Full article: R.I. lawmakers to hear testimony on gay marriage, divorce | Boston.com (AP)
What do you think about gay marriage laws being proposed in Rhode Island? | ABC6
Same-sex divorce case takes a new turn | Providence Journal