Hard to believe it but...

"An opponent of same-sex marriage, Governor Carcieri has vetoed a bill that would have added "domestic partners'' to the list of people authorized by law to make funeral arrangements for each other.

In his veto message, Republican Carcieri said: "This bill represents a disturbing trend over the past few years of the incremental erosion of the principles surrounding traditional marriage, which is not the preferred way to approach this issue.

"If the General Assembly believes it would like to address the issue of domestic partnerships, it should place the issue on the ballot and let the people of the state of Rhode Island decide."


story from Joe Sudbay of AMERICAblog

So let me get this straight, so to speak. The entire state of Rhode Island gets to vote on whether a longtime partner can make funeral arrangements for his/her dead spouse? Can it get any more mean-spirited than that?