Steve Ahlquist
Rhode Islanders move to end Citizens United
Rhode Island Move to Amend held a meeting Monday night at the Warwick Public Library to discuss ways in which to reverse the Supreme Court’s controversial and unpopular Citizens United decision. House Bill 6051, introduced by Representative Art Handy, seeks to challenge the Supreme Court ruling by asserting that Corporations are not persons and that [...]
Olneyville SHINES! Neighborhood Cleanup
Tomorrow, May 18th, from 10am-1pm, you can be part of the solution when you volunteer to help cleanup Olneyville in collaboration with the Olneyville Housing Corporation. Registration begins at 9:30am, Tools, bags and gloves will be provided. We’re meeting at Joslin Park on Florence St and afterwards there’s going to be a FREE BBQ for [...]
Jessica Ahlquist featured in PBS show on Constitution
At 9pm on Thursday evening, May 16th, the second episode of Constitution USA with Peter Sagal will premiere on channel 36, Rhode Island’s PBS affiliate. This episode prominently features the Cranston West Prayer Banner case and interviews both Jessica Ahlquist (my niece), the high school student who successfully had the banner removed, and David Bradley, [...]
May 2: ‘Day of Reason’ in RI
Lost in the mad dash to pass marriage equality in our state was the official announcement that Thursday, May 2nd was the “Day of Reason” here in Rhode Island. From the press release: The Humanists of RI and The Secular Coalition for RI are pleased to announce, pursuant to their request, that on April 30, [...]
John DePetro’s disdain for undocumented workers
When six-year old Derrick Johnson was struck and killed by a pickup truck driven by Andres Morales, the community mourned a tragic death. There is no question that the terrible event was an accident, Morales had no intention or wish to harm the boy. Perhaps the accident was preventable, perhaps not, but the case has [...]
License plate legislation aids anti-choice efforts
In the battle over marriage equality in Rhode Island, one of the most vocal groups in opposition to full civil rights for the LGBTQ community was the Knights of Columbus (KoC), a Roman “Catholic fraternal service organization.” The KoC is one of the major, if not the major contributor to the National Organization for Marriage [...]
In defense of my niece Jessica Ahlquist
My niece, Jessica Ahlquist, has received dozens of awards for her brave stance in challenging the constitutionality of a Christian prayer affixed to the wall of her Cranston high school. In the wake of winning her case, the outcome of which was never in doubt given the strong, 50 years of legal precedent, she faced [...]
Local humanists adopt road in Cranston
Humanists and atheists took a lot of heat during the Cranston School Committee meetings to discuss the prayer banner at Cranston High School West and after the subsequent ruling that declared the prayer banner illegal and mandated its removal. Add to that the controversy over the cross in Woonsocket, the cross on the median strip [...]
NOM, Chris Plante: bark is worse than their bite
NOM-RI’s Chris Plante is becoming increasingly desperate in his efforts to block marriage equality in Rhode Island. The Westerly Sun reports on Plante’s newspaper ads that contained unveiled political threats against Republican Senator Dennis Algiere: If he ends up voting ‘yes,’ we will do what we can to unseat him. He will have broken with [...]
CoC leader: ‘Discrimination is bad for business’
The Rhode Island business community has overwhelmingly endorsed marriage equality, and largely stands opposed to the religious exemptions in the Ciccone bill. John Duffy, president of the PR firm Duffy & Shapley and chairman of the Greater providence Chamber of Commerce was quite clear, “Discrimination is expensive and bad for business,” he said on a [...]
Help stop the bullying of LGBTQ students
The Day of Silence is an annual protest organized by GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, to protest the bullying of LGBTQ students in High Schools and college campuses across the country. The event, originally a grassroots effort started in 1996, was adopted by GLSEN in 2000 and in 2013 the 18th Day [...]
Providence ranks 4th most post-Christian city
More and more research seems to come out every week that talks about the decline of traditional religious beliefs in the United States. Stories about the “nones” those that that claim no religious affiliation, place the number at about 20% nationally, and here in Rhode Island that figure is over 40%. Now the Barna Group [...]
How the right pushes for exemptions to equality
Marriage equality advocates took lot of hope from April 8th’s front page ProJo article in which Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed anticipated “a full Senate vote on whether to legalize same-sex marriage by the end of April.” Good news indeed, but one needs to continue reading for the unpleasant bit. Paiva Weed is concerned [...]
Rhode Island Religious Leaders Stand Up For Love
On Sunday Rev. Geoffrey Black, general minister and president of the United Church of Christ, and Rev. Peter Morales, president of the Unitarian Universalist Association spoke at a rally at the First Unitarian Church in Providence on Benefit St. Though opponents of marriage equality often cloak their arguments in dogmatic, Bible-inspired rhetoric it is important [...]
Local Churches Push For Marriage Equality Sunday
The Reverend James Ford of the First Unitarian Church writes: On April 7, 2013, you have an important opportunity to make your voice heard on marriage equality in Rhode Island. Join the Rev. Peter Morales, president of the Unitarian Universalist Association, and the Rev. Geoffrey Black, president of the United Church of Christ, who will [...]
MassResistance Asks NOM To Back Hate Speech
When asked directly by Joe Siegel back in 2009 if NOM-RI is a hate group, Christopher Plante, who runs the local affiliate of the anti marriage equality group NOM (National Organization for Marriage) said, “I don’t believe that at all. Do I think that there are extreme people on both sides of the movement that [...]
How Religious Is RI?
Ted Nesi recently wrote a blog post in which he compared data from a series of studies dealing with the issue of just how Catholic the State of Rhode Island actually is. First drawing attention to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolates (CARA) that places the Catholic “baptisms-to-birth ratio” at 34%, the third [...]
Tobin Urges State To Wait For Marriage Equality
Marriage Equality in Rhode Island is going to happen. The forces fighting against the rising tide of love and equality are starting to realize this. Yesterday election forecasting wunderkind Nate Silver had a piece in the New York Times that crunched the numbers and came to a conclusion that should give pause to opponents: marriage [...]
Metts Opposes Marriage Equality On ‘Biblical Principles’
Judge Ronald R Lagueux, in his ruling in Ahlquist v. City of Cranston that removed the prayer banner from the walls of the auditorium at Cranston High School West, described the Cranston School Committee’s open meetings to discuss the prayer banner as at times having the tenor of “a religious revival.” This is something those [...]
Fine Line Between Hate Group And ‘Faith Alliance’
Last week, while waiting at the State House in the long line that formed to give testimony at the Senate Judiciary Marriage Equality bill hearing, I decided to check out the website of MassResistance, a group instrumental in the loud, raucous anti-Marriage Equality rally held when the House took testimony on the issue back in [...]
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