2011: A Tumultuous Year (So Far) for R.I. LGBT Activists

2011 has certainly had more than its share of setbacks for Rhode Island's LGBT community.

The year started off with high expectations when Gov. Lincoln Chafee, who is a staunch LGBT rights supporter, took office. He encouraged lawmakers to pass a bill that would have allowed same-sex couples to marry-a polar opposite to his successor, former Gov. Don Carcieri, who opposed every gay rights measure that had been introduced during his two terms in office.

The House of Representatives passed a civil unions bill in May-gay House Speaker Gordon Fox (D-Providence) faced widespread criticism for abandoning a vote on the marriage equality measure and pushing for civil unions. The state Senate approved the civil unions measure on Wednesday, June 29. And LGBT activists continue to urge Chafee to veto it.

Is the LGBT rights movement in the Ocean State in disarray?

It depends upon whom you ask.

Providence activist Michael Airhart penned a June 4 post on progressive blog RI's Future, titled "The Incredible Shrinking Equality Movement."

"In the past year, Rhode Island sexual minorities have witnessed implosions and cutbacks at no less than three pro-equality organizations: Marriage Equality Rhode Island, Queer Action Rhode Island and the Providence Equality Action Committee (PEAC)," wrote Airhart.

PEAC and Queer Action are now defunct. Former MERI executive director Kathy Kushnir, former spokesperson Bill Fischer and several board members have left the organization in recent months. And allegations have emerged that suggest MERI staffers conducted secret meetings and made backroom deals with Fox.

Some believe MERI and other local groups have become overwhelmed by the National Organization for Marriage and other well-financed entities.

"We believe to win marriage rights, Rhode Island needs a strong, well financed local statewide organization that builds coalitions with strong well-financed national and regional organizations such as HRC [Human Rights Campaign] and GLAD [Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders]," said Providence residents Jim Vegher and John Grigsby, who are MERI donors. "We think it is impossible to win this and probably future fights without them working hand-in-hand with a local Rhode Island organization. We think it would be a mistake to alienate these organizations."

State Rep. Frank Ferri (D-Warwick), who co-founded MERI, said the organization has benefited from the assistance of the Boston-based GLAD, HRC and other organizations. "If it wasn't for the national organizations and their support, MERI wouldn't have survived," he said.

Ferri dismisses claims that HRC was ever plotting to derail marriage equality Rhode Island. He said HRC's volunteers who conducted outreach in legislative districts, manned phone banks and spoke with lawmakers had a positive result.

"They were trying to help us," explained Ferri. "A lot of that work helped move people in the General Assembly (to support same-sex marriage rights)."

Susan MacNeil was MERI's director of communications and development from 2008-2009. She now works for a New Hampshire HIV/AIDS service organization, but MacNeil said she was "shocked" when she learned civil unions were on the table in Rhode Island.

MacNeil said she left MERI due to what she said were power struggles behind the scenes. "I was thrilled to join MERI in its efforts to become more formalized because I believe equal marriage is the civil rights issue of the 21st century," she told EDGE. "After a year, I became disillusioned with the process and returned to grassroots activism."

Belle Pellegrino, who was one of the participants in Rhode Island's first-ever Pride Parade in 1976, remembers the struggle to get the event off the ground.

"People in the (LGBT) community told us to (wait)," she recalled. "If we had listened, who knows when that first parade would have taken place. We didn't listen then and we can't listen to that now. Our intent was to try to make (Providence) and (Rhode Island) a safer more open place for all who would come after us. I believe we succeeded."

Pellegrino believes one of the effects of that success has been a sense of complacency among members of Rhode Island's LGBT community. She said another problem, which has always been lauded as one of its greatest strengths, is its diversity.

"We are a community divided," said Pellegrino. "If a way could be found to bring the different segments together, if we could find some common ground that would unite us, we could change the world around us. As long as we separate from each other, we will not make the forward strides that are possible."