PROVIDENCE — An opponent of same-sex marriage, Governor Carcieri has vetoed a bill giving domestic partners the right to claim the bodies of — and make funeral arrangements for — their loved ones.

The only one of the dueling defense-of-marriage, same-sex marriage and gay-rights bills introduced in Rhode Island this year that cleared the General Assembly, the legislation was an outgrowth of the wrenching tale that Mark S. Goldberg told lawmakers about his months-long battle last fall to persuade state authorities to release to him the body of his partner of 17 years, Ron Hanby, for cremation.

“I felt as if I was treated not as a second-class citizen, but as a noncitizen,” Goldberg told the Senate Judiciary Committee last winter, because “we were not legally married or blood relatives.”

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,” he wrote.

He took issue with the definition of a domestic partner as “a person who, prior to the decedent’s death, was in an exclusive, intimate and committed relationship with the decedent” for at least a year, saying a year “is not a sufficient duration to establish a serious bond between two individuals ... [relative to] issues regarding funeral arrangements, burial rights and disposal of human remains.”

He also questioned “how it would be ascertained in many circumstances whether [a couple] had been in a relationship for year” since there is “no official or recognized form” of domestic partnership agreement in Rhode Island.

Coming on a day when he vetoed more than two dozen bills passed during the legislature’s hectic two-day special session in late October, the veto of this bill unleashed a torrent of anger from gay-rights advocates.

Describing himself as “genuinely upset” by Carcieri’s actions, the House sponsor, Rep. David Segal, D-Providence, said: “I think the man is heartless … [this] doesn’t change the definition of the word ‘marriage.’ ” (Sen. Rhoda Perry sponsored the matching Senate bill.)

“It is completely disgraceful that Governor Carcieri has chosen to ignore and devalue the committed relationships of same-sex couples in this state,” said Karen Loewy, a staff attorney for GLAD, the acronym for Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders. “Unconscionable,” echoed Kathy Kushnir, executive director of the advocacy group Marriage Equality of Rhode Island.

In all, the lawmakers passed 243 bills during the special session. On Tuesday alone, Carcieri vetoed 25, signed another 46 into law and left scores more to become law without his signature.

Other bills vetoed included legislation stripping the governor of his power to appoint a replacement for a U.S. senator who dies or leaves office in mid-term.

Known as the “Blagojevich bill,” the measure sought to close off the possibility that arose when former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich allegedly tried to sell a U.S. Senate seat.

The bill would require that a special election be held, unless the vacancy occurs after July 1 of an election year, in which case the vacancy would be filled during the regular election cycle. In his veto message, Carcieri said the current law allowing the governor to make an “interim appointment” until the next regular election, provides a “grace period to allow for a fair and competitive election. The process ... is consistent with the practice followed by a majority of the states and is inherently reasonable.”

His other vetoes cover a wide gamut, including a bill that would require lenders to give borrowers 45 days notice before beginning foreclosure proceedings; a bill to require the release from prison of anyone cleared of the alleged probation violation that sent him or her there; and a proposal that could render police interrogations in serious cases inadmissible at trial unless they were tape recorded.

Carcieri said the recording requirement in the latter bill is not always “feasible or practical since police contact ... can start under hectic conditions, outside of a police station ... important confessions in these settings could be suppressed.” While the bill lays out some exceptions, such as circumstances where there was a machine malfunction or recording equipment was not “reasonably available,” he said, the terms are “vague and ambiguous.”

While “well-intentioned,” Carcieri said, the bill requiring lenders to provide more advance notice to property owners of foreclosure is the latest in a series of piecemeal actions by city and state officials to pass laws and ordinances “of dubious legality in an attempt to curtail the ability of lenders to foreclose on homes where borrowers have ceased making mortgage loan payments. Such ordinances may be popular, but could push some lenders out of the marketplace entirely.”

If lawmakers decide to seek “veto overrides of these bills and others that he vetoed in July,” House spokesman Larry Berman said, “the House and Senate can reconvene and take up the vetoes on Jan. 5, 2010, before the 2010 session begins.”Bill status

Vetoed

SAME SEX: Would have granted couples funeral rights.

U.S. SENATE: Would have stripped governor of power to fill vacancies.

MORTGAGES: Would have required 45-day notice of foreclosures.

INTERROGATIONS: Would have required electronic recording in capital cases.

DMV: Would have reopened Westerly office.

GREEN JOBS: Would have established task force.

PROBATION: Violators exonerated of new offenses would have been freed.

TRACKING: Would have limited use of electronic devices to track people.

Passed

TEXTING: Bans text-messaging while driving.

ORGAN DONORS: Eligible for tax deductions.

kgregg@projo.com