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But the measure faces resistance in the State Senate and its fate is uncertain. Teresa Paiva-Weed, a Democrat who is the Senate president, opposes same-sex marriage but has said she would allow a vote on it in committee. Supporters say that if it gets to the Senate floor, the measure will pass, but opponents are skeptical and state senators are being lobbied heavily by both sides.

Supporters of same-sex marriage have sought to build on the momentum from last year's elections, when voters in Maine, Maryland and Washington State approved it at the ballot box. Rhode Island is one of several states, including Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Minnesota and New Jersey, where supporters of gay marriage are trying to make legislative gains this year.

Of the nine states where gay marriage is already legal, five — Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont — are in New England. (The other four are Maryland, Iowa, New York and Washington, as well as the District of Columbia.) If the measure passes here, New England would become the first solid block of states in the country to allow gay marriage, underscoring the region's reputation as the nation's most liberal, and perhaps its least religious. A Gallup survey found that all six New England states rank among the bottom 10 states for weekly church attendance.

And yet Rhode Island has seemed out of step with the rest of New England in not embracing gay marriage sooner. It was only on Tuesday that the House Judiciary Committee approved a same-sex marriage bill, albeit unanimously. It had come up in committee once before, in 2001, but only one person supported it.

The voting here comes almost a decade after same-sex marriage became legal in neighboring Massachusetts.

"There was deep-rooted religious opposition," said state Representative Frank G. Ferri, a Democrat who is the deputy majority leader, and who is gay. "Even though we're mostly Democrats, we had many conservative Democrats who have kept this at bay."

Perhaps the biggest reason for the turnabout is that supporters of gay marriage made an effort last year to elect sympathetic candidates to the General Assembly.

"We began planning for that by reaching out to pro-equality candidates and working with pro-equality incumbents," said Ray Sullivan, campaign director for Rhode Islanders United for Marriage.

As a result, he said, they helped elect nine of the 10 new House members and the five new senators who support gay marriage. They have been joined by a broad-based coalition of religious, labor and civic groups and numerous elected officials, including the House speaker, Gordon D. Fox, who is gay, and the governor, Lincoln Chafee, an independent, who is now a strong proponent of same-sex marriage.

Governor Chafee has made appeals for the bill on the grounds of religious tolerance, invoking the spirit of Roger Williams, who founded Rhode Island, which became a haven from religious persecution.

He has also said gay marriage could help the state's lagging economy. "We are at an economic disadvantage with our neighboring states when we do not have the welcome mat out for all those who want to work here and contribute to our economy," Mr. Chafee said after the vote on Tuesday.

The driving force against gay marriage is the National Organization for Marriage Rhode Island, an offshoot of the national group that has worked against it in several other states. It objects, among other things, to the suggestion that Rhode Island has some kind of obligation to go along with the rest of New England.

"We belong to the United States of America, not to the United States of New England," said Christopher Plante, the executive director. "Rhode Island stands with the vast majority of Americans in understanding that marriage is the union of one man and one woman." Thirty states have constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage.

Opponents say that Rhode Island never considered the issue before because most voters, most legislators and previous governors were against it.

"Today, Rhode Island has a more liberal governor and a House speaker wielding much political influence who has made it a personal mission to pass this legislation," said Darrell Lee, a founding member of the Faith Alliance of Rhode Island, a group of religious and civic leaders against the bill.

Standing in the Judiciary Committee hearing room after Tuesday's vote, Mr. Lee said that gay-marriage advocates "have done a good job at putting pressure on the Legislature, and what you saw today was the Legislature caving into the pressure of these organized groups."

But, he said, their efforts had also "awakened the faith community beyond that previously represented primarily by the Catholic Church." The Faith Alliance brought out hundreds of opponents at a hearing last week that lasted more than six hours; many were Latino members of Pentecostal churches.

Still, the religious community here is deeply split. Bishop Thomas Tobin of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence strongly opposes the measure and last week called gay marriage "immoral and unnecessary."

Rhode Island's Episcopal bishop, W. Nicholas Knisely, supports it, saying gays and lesbians deserve the same rights as any other couple. "Christ welcomed all to his table," said the Rev. Gene Dyszlewski, chairman of the Rhode Island Religious Coalition for Marriage Equality. "We hope to follow his example."