Providence - Gov. Don Carcieri is a staunch social conservative who headlined a fundraiser for an anti-gay marriage group and says same-sex couples have no civil right to marriage.

So it surprised even some of Carcieri's toughest critics when the Republican sat down this month for a tense but polite meeting with six members of Queer Action of Rhode Island, the state's newest gay rights group. When he emerged, Carcieri announced he would consider supporting a domestic partnership system similar to one recently expanded by voters in Washington state.

His suggestion was an early victory for Queer Action, which wants to lobby for gay marriage and stronger hate crime laws while taking its message to opponents like Carcieri who are accustomed to a normally sedate Statehouse. Its tactics have included Internet campaigns, protests and the sitdown with the governor.

"If you cut off communication, then people aren't going to be held accountable," said Susan Heroux, a Queer Action founder who was at the meeting. "And we want politicians to be held accountable to all the people, including gay people's lives."

Heroux's group, which counts more than 200 members on its Facebook Web site, organized this summer to protest the corporate sponsorship of a celebration held by the Rhode Island chapter of National Organization for Marriage, an anti-gay marriage group.

It successfully pressured Canadian coffee shop chain Tim Hortons and Blount Fine Foods to withdraw their sponsorship and then held a protest outside the event.

"We wanted everyone to see us, we felt that was really important," Heroux said. "And that's a part of the idea behind Queer Action - it's about visibility."

Among its next goals are increasing pressure on Congressional leaders who oppose the federal recognition of gay couples and seeking meetings with House Speaker William Murphy and Senate President M. Teresa Paiva-Weed, both Democrats who oppose gay marriage.

Heroux said she considers Murphy a bigger obstacle to gay marriage in Rhode Island than Carcieri. Unless a bill gets to Carcieri's desk, it doesn't matter whether he would veto it.

Heroux, 42, has long been involved in gay rights causes. She was a founder of Marriage Equality Rhode Island, the dominant voice in the state's gay marriage debate, and served as its chairwoman from the summer of 2008 until earlier this year. She left the board, saying it was time for a change.

She married her wife two years ago in Provincetown, Mass., since they cannot get married in their home state. The couple have a 14-year-old daughter.

The drive toward gay marriage has lost ground in Rhode Island even as every other New England state besides Maine has adopted it. A gay marriage bill has been introduced in the General Assembly every year since 1997, but it has never received a floor vote.