The New Hampshire Senate voted 13-11 April 29 to approve a bill providing for equal marriage rights for same-sex couples. The New Hampshire House approved a same-sex marriage bill March 26. The new version, passed by the Senate, must now go back to the House for concurrence. That vote will likely take place next week.
It was a dramatic victory for New Hampshire, and marks the third time a state legislature—behind California and Vermont—has approved a marriage-equality bill. ( California did so twice but was vetoed. ) New Hampshire Democratic Gov. John Lynch has said he opposes same-sex marriage but has backed off such statements more recently. If the bill survives, New Hampshire will become the fifth state in the nation to offer marriage licenses to same-sex couples—and the fourth to do so in the past year.
Just as the New Hampshire Senate began debating the same-sex marriage bill, one key opponent—Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Deborah Reynolds—announced she would now be supporting the bill, dramatically increasing the possibility of Senate passage.
Reynolds said that concerns she had when she initially opposed the bill in committee last week had been addressed in a proposed compromise amendment. She asked the Senate to reject the judiciary's original recommendation against the bill and take up a newly rewritten proposal.
The Senate quickly did so on a 13-11 vote.
The legislative body then began debate on whether to substitute the new language for the original bill. State Sen. Margaret Hassan, D-Exeter, said the amended bill was a compromise that addressed many of the concerns constituents had about the original bill. She said many people have learned that the state's existing civil-union option "stigmatizes same-sex couples" and further discriminations. She said the bill, as reconstituted, "reaffirms the tradition and sanctity of religious marriage."
The Senate voted 13-11 to substitute the new language and then voted 13-11 to approve the measure.
The bill, as rewritten, says all citizens have a right to a civil marriage or religious marriage and that every religious denomination has right to decide whether to perform same-sex marriages. It says that each applicant for a marriage license can choose how to be designated on the marriage license—as either a bride, groom or spouse.
Other changes in the bill include a specification that a person must be at least 18 years old to enter into a same-sex marriage. And it provides that civil unions from other states will be recognized as marriages in New Hampshire; that civil unions under current New Hampshire law will automatically become marriages starting in 2011; and that no one can be married to more than one person at a time.
The bill provides for the law to take effect Jan. 1, 2010.
Prior to the vote in the Senate, the legislature's joint Judiciary Committee voted against the same-sex marriage bill 3-2, with Reynolds telling the Concord Monitor newspaper that the state is "just not there yet."
But that's not what a statewide survey showed. A poll of 491 voters released April 28 showed 55 percent support allowing gay couples to obtain marriage licenses, and 39 percent oppose. The poll was conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center between April 13 and 22 and was commissioned by the New Hampshire Freedom to Marry Coalition.
Showdown in Maine
More than 3,000 people showed up at a convention center in the capital of Maine April 22 to register their opinions for and against allowing same-sex couples obtain marriage licenses. And on Tuesday, the Joint Judiciary Committee voted 11-2-1 to approve the measure.
The hearing lasted 10 hours, taking brief statements from almost 200, according to the Portland Press Herald.
The legislature is expected to vote within days on whether to advance a bill seeking to establish equal marriage rights for gay couples. As in Vermont and New Hampshire, the closest vote is expected in the Senate in Maine.
If the bill does pass the House and Senate in Maine, there are still question marks. For one, the state's Democratic governor, John Baldacci, has not indicated publicly whether he will sign the legislation. The Morning Herald newspaper in Augusta said Baldacci stated in 2005 that he was against same-sex marriage but seemed to back off that statement a year later when he was running for re-election.
And the biggest wild card may be once again on the ballot. Opponents of same-sex marriage have vowed to mount a drive for a referendum, something they have done many times before on gay issues.
But Equality Maine Executive Director Betsy Smith said "the momentum is with us," citing the recent victories in Iowa and Vermont.
Iowa, Connecticut and New York
The Des Moines Register reported April 27 that "at least 360" same-sex couples applied for marriage licenses in Iowa that day, the first day the state made marriage licenses available to same-sex couples. The Register said only 26 of that number were out-of-state couples. Most licenses were issued in Polk County, which is the most populous county in the state and which is located in the center of the state, surrounding Des Moines. As in Massachusetts and some other states, couples who apply for marriage licenses in Iowa have a three-day waiting period between when they obtain the license and when they can be married but can seek a waiver of that waiting period from a judge. The Register and other papers reported that some judges turned down requests for the waiver.
Meanwhile, although the Connecticut Supreme Court had already ruled that the state constitution required same-sex couples be treated the same as opposite-sex couples in marriage licensing, the state legislature last week passed a law establishing that right. And on April 28, the New York Assembly's Judiciary Committee took up a discussion of the same-sex marriage bill New York Gov. David Paterson introduced there.
© 2009 Keen News Service