New Hampshire House endorses gay marriage
http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=NH+House+endorses+gay+marriage&articleId=d2564bb9-7761-401a-9366-f3dccde337a5
By TOM FAHEY
State House Bureau Chief , Union-Leader
March 26, 2009
Concord – The New Hampshire House narrowly passed a bill Thursday that would allow gay couples to marry.
The final vote on HB 436 was 186-179, and came after nearly three hours of debate.
The bill now moves to the Senate.
Those who pushed for passage of the bill said it was a matter of equal rights and that it will bring an end to discrimination against homosexuals. They said the state’s civil unions law, passed in 2007, is not the equivalent of marriage.
Opponents said the bill upends thousands of years of tradition and religious practice that reserves marriage as a bond between a man and woman.
Gov. John Lynch does not support same-sex marriage. His press secretary Colin Manning said, “The civil unions bill he signed into law prevents discrimination and provides the same legal protections to all New Hampshire families to the extent that is possible under federal law.”
The bill was amended Thursday to state that no clergy of any religion could be required under the bill to officiate at a same-sex marriage.
Democrats were joined by about a dozen Republicans in passing the bill; 26 Democrats opposed it.
The final vote followed a 183-182 vote against passing the bill, an unsuccessful 177-189 attempt to kill it, and a failed effort to postpone it for more work.
Rep. David Pierce, D-Etna, in arguing for passage, told House members, “Both sides of this debate believe in the institution of marriage,” said. “We all want the same things during our time on earth. It doesn’t matter if you’re straight or gay.”
Rep. Laura Gandia, R-Litchfield, warned it will make children of this and future generations “guinea pigs in a massive social experiment that is irreversible.”
Rep. Melanie Levesque, D-Brookline, who is black and married to a white man, said her marriage was still a crime in Virginia in the mid-1960s.
“We have had a long history of challenging conventional wisdom — the Earth is flat, people from different continents should not marry, people who are the same should not marry,” she said.
Republicans who voted against the bill said gay marriage defies nature and could harm children.
Rep. John Cebrowski of Bedford said, “You cannot make two similar things into something they were never meant to be.” Rep. Laura Gandia of Litchfield called it “the most radical redefinition of marriage that can be imposed.”
Rep. Nancy Elliott of Merrimack said marriage was instituted by God and that “marriage between a man and a woman is perfect and holy.”
Democrats hold a 14-9 edge in the Senate, but Senate Republican Leader Peter Bragdon of Milford said GOP senators will work to kill the legislation.
In a statement after the vote, state GOP chairman John H. Sununu called the vote “another attempt by the liberal Democrats in the Legislature to impose their San Francisco agenda on the State of New Hampshire.”
The former governor said, “The small margin by which the bill passed should encourage Governor Lynch to take a stand with a clear ‘I will veto this bill if it gets to my desk’ message.”
But Mo Baxley, executive director of New Hampshire Freedom to Marry Coalition, said lawmakers showed the world that “New Hampshire does not discriminate and all families count.”
The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, the U.S. Episcopal Church’s first openly gay bishop, had testified in support of the bill, calling it a matter of fairness.
“I am delighted, because it’s clear to me that New Hampshire values one class of citizenship and not two,” Robinson said of the House vote. “And I’m delighted that (the bill) threatens people of faith in no way.”
More than 600 New Hampshire couples have entered into civil unions since the state’s law took effect last year. The current bill would change the name from civil union to marriage. Federal law does not recognize civil unions or same-sex marriages.
Look for additional coverage of the reaction to the House vote later today on UnionLeader.com and tomorrow here and in the New Hampshire Union Leader.
Note: The Associated Press contributed to this report. Due to a typographical error, the one-vote margin of the 183-182 roll call was misstated in an earlier version of this story.
►The roll call of the House vote on HB 436.
►Text of HB 436, the gay marriage bill
►AP: Vermont’s governor would veto gay marriage (2)
►AP: In New York, support from Bloomberg and Schumer
“Opponents said the bill upends thousands of years of tradition and religious practice that reserves marriage as a bond between a man and woman.”
Progress is baaaad! We all should still be stoning people for collecting sticks on the sabbath, because at one point it was tradition and religious practice!
THE AMERICAN NATION IS AVOIDING GOD AND HIS WAYS—AND REBELLING
MARRIAGE SHOULD ONLY BE DEFINED AS BETWEEN ONE MAN AND ONE WOMAN
UNDER GOD–OTHER THAN THAT THE WHOLE NATION WILL REAP THE CONSEQUENCES
OF SIN AND REBELLION–MAY GOD HELP US AT THESE VERU DIFFICULT TIMES-
ALL THIS BECAUSE WE AS A NTAION HAVE D E PA RTED FROM GOD—AMD OURONLY
HOPE IS UNIFY IN P R A Y E R———–