Are You A Same-Sex Couple Celebrating the Right to Marry in Bristol-Warren?

Same-sex couples celebrated their right to marriage equality on Thursday as Rhode Island officially opened marriage to homosexual couples.

Across the state gay and lesbian couples headed to town hall and signed their unions into law - a fight that took more than 16 years to pass through the state legislature. 

In Warren today, the Town Clerk's office stated that one marriage license was issued, however it would not specify whether it was to a heterosexual or homosexual couple. In Rhode Island marriage licenses are not a matter of public record and clerk's offices in both Bristol and Warren stated that they had a duty to protect the privacy of couples requesting marriage licenses.

Are you a same-sex couple celebrating your right to marriage in Bristol or Warren? Patch wants to hear your story! Share your journey in the comments below, or blog on Bristol-Warren Patch. Share photos of this special day for your family and this historic moment for Rhode Island by posting photos on Bristol-Warren Patch.

The procedure for getting a license is essentially the same as for heterosexual couples — completion of a form and payment of a fee at a local city or town hall — with the exception that each person in a same-sex marriage is termed a "spouse" on the document. Locally, the fee for a marriage license costs $24.

Wedding-related business owners on the bustling Bristol and Warren wedding scene are hoping that the expansion of marriage rights in the state will boost their business, the Providence Journal reported earlier this week.

If your are a same-sex couple from Bristol or Warren and you would like to share your journey and celebration of love and marriage, contact editor Erin Tiernan at erin.tiernan@patch.com.

Written with reports by editor Joseph Hutnak.