Christopher Young, right, exchanges words with the Rev. Jakob Lazarus Thibault with the Little Brothers and Sisters of Jesus Caritas before a hearing on two gay-marriage bills.

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The Providence Journal / Connie Grosch

PROVIDENCE — On the heels of victories in five other New England states and movement in the New York legislature, same-sex marriage supporters in Rhode Island flocked to the State House on Wednesday, alongside ardent critics, to make their case for gay marriage in this state.

Hours before the House Judiciary Committee hearing began, they jammed the room in the same awkward intimacy that has played out around the region in recent months and years.

Priests in clerical collars and children with rosary beads sat beside gay couples who huddled with their own children between them.

Supporters spoke of basic fairness and equal protection under the law, while critics cited a need to protect what they call “the institution of traditional marriage” from alternate interpretations.

They testified on two bills: one that would legalize gay marriage and a one that would put the question to the voters in a referendum that sponsor Jon Brien, a Woonsocket Democrat, called a fair way to carry out the wishes of Rhode Island voters.

It was a heated evening, punctured by emotional moments, including one where a group of women spotted a man in a “Mr. Gay Rhode Island” sash and surrounded him, praying and offering advice that his lifestyle was wrong.

The man, Scott McMahon, listened quietly, saying little.

Some of the roughly 150 people who waited hours to testify brought personal stories. Angela Mazaris sat before the committee with her partner, Jack Amoureaux, and the women’s 9-month old daughter, inviting skeptics to spend a day with their family.

“Please join us for our family meals,” Marzalis implored them. “Come with us on our walks, and join us at our playgroup. Sit with us while we read Goodnight Moon and rock our daughter to sleep at night. And then, after that, look me in the eye and tell me that my family is not worthy of equal protection under the law.”

In his own turn at the microphone, the Rev. Bernard Healey, lobbyist for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence, said opposition to that view does not amount to discrimination. “It has been and continues to be the consistent teaching of the Catholic Church as well as the existing state law that marriage is the union of a man and a woman,” Healey said.

Such debates have dominated regional headlines this spring, with lawmakers in all other New England states approving same-sex unions. (New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch has not yet decided whether he will sign the bill passed by lawmakers last week.). An Iowa court decision in April authorized gay marriage in that state. And on Tuesday, the New York State Assembly approved legislation that would make it the sixth state to OK the measure, though the plan is expected to face opposition in the Senate.

With such momentum, now is the time for Rhode Island to act, Rep. Frank Ferri, D-Warwick, a married gay man, testified.

“It is embarrassing and insulting that I have come before you again to beg for the constitutional right of Rhode Island’s citizens to marry the people we love,” Ferri said.

Thirty one of the 75 House members cosponsored this year’s gay-marriage bill. But many Rhode Islanders believe it could take time before the Ocean State approves such unions, something they attribute to resistance from Smith Hill leaders and the state’s powerful religious establishment.

Governor Carcieri ardently opposes the measure, with House Speaker William J. Murphy and Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed also voicing resistance.

In the prior dozen years the bill has come before the legislature, it has never been voted out of committee. No decisions were made Wednesday about the fate of this year’s bill.

cneedham@projo.com