Rhode Island has become the 10th U.S. state to legally define marriage to include homosexual couples.

LifeSiteNews.com is reporting that Rhode Island governor Lincoln Chafee signed a bill into law that will allow same-sex couples to marry beginning on August 1. The law also contains a provision allowing homosexual couples who entered civil unions to "convert" those relationships into marriages.

The bill contains a clause allowing churches to refuse to conduct same-sex weddings, but no protection has been extended to business owned by people of faith who may not wish to participate.

“Much of the argument for and against gay marriage has revolved around the morality of the issue," the governor wrote in an op-ed appearing in the New York Times last week. "Each side feels intensely that its position is more righteous than the other side’s. I personally feel that Rhode Island is a better state, and America is a better country, when we are as inclusive as possible.”

Rather than try to defend his stance from a moral point-of-view, Chafee goes on to say that the reason he signed the bill was for economic reasons.

"The point is not simply that we are welcoming to gay people, though we are. It is that we want to welcome everyone. The talented workers who are driving the new economy — young, educated and forward-looking — want to live in a place that reflects their values. They want diversity, not simply out of a sense of justice, but because diversity makes life more fun. Why would any state turn away the people who are most likely to create the economies of the 21st century?"

Diversity makes life more fun? For whom? Certainly not the florists, bakers, restaurant owners and other faithful members of the American work force who will be persecuted and even run out of business for refusing to violate their consciences by providing services to same- sex marriages.

Christopher Plante, executive director of the Rhode Island chapter of the National Organization for Marriage, outlined some of the people harmed by this "fun" form of diversity that Chafee just signed into law.

"In other states that have recently redefined marriage such as New York, Maine, Vermont and Washington, people of faith have faced consequences for refusing to accommodate genderless marriage in violation of their deeply-held faith," Plante wrote in a statement issued just before the final House vote.

"A Christian couple in Vermont was sued for not hosting a same-sex ceremony in their inn, and was forced to pay a fine and agree to no longer accommodate any weddings in their facility. Recently the Washington State Attorney General has taken legal action against a Christian florist for declining to utilize her artistic talents in celebration of a same-sex wedding, which she opposes on religious grounds. The florist has also been sued by a lesbian couple and the ACLU. Notary Publics in Maine have been warned that they must surrender their certifications if they refuse to solemnize a same-sex marriage even if it conflicts with their religious beliefs. Town Clerks in New York faced similar threats."

Wherever same-sex marriage is legalized, religious persecution ensues.

"When marriage is redefined into a genderless institution, it presents a range of legal conflicts for people of faith and the small businesses and charitable organizations they operate to serve the public," Plante said.

"Without robust legal protections to allow these faithful people and groups to maintain fidelity in the public square to their religious beliefs, we’re likely to see a raft of lawsuits and governmental action such as license revocations, fines and denial of governmental contracts to these faith-based groups and individuals."

Plante urged the House to stop the bill from reaching the governor’s desk, but to no avail. The House approved the legislation in a 56-15 vote.

Now that it has passed, he says that because of the bill's shocking lack of religious protections, this law puts the faithful "in the cross-hairs for punishment by political groups and ambitious politicians."

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