Everyone expected a close vote on the same-sex-marriage bill in the New Hampshire House June 3—but it wasn't. The bill passed 198-176 after passing the Senate 14-10 that morning. Gov. John Lynch signed the bill about one hour after the House vote, said openly gay State Rep. Jim Splaine.
New Hampshire is now the sixth state to approve equal-marriage rights for same-sex couples—following Massachusetts ( in 2004 ) , Connecticut ( in 2008 ) , and Iowa, Vermont and Maine ( in 2009 ) .
Splaine, a key shepherd of the measure, said the House gallery was packed with people supporting passage of the measure and there were some emotional moments in the debate. There was, according to one account, also an emotional outburst after the vote from an as-yet unidentified House member.
A motion to have the vote "reconsidered"—in essence, a do-over—was soundly rejected, said Splaine.
Splaine said there's very little difference between the version of the bill that passed June 3 and the first two versions. One sentence, he said, was added to underscore that the law will not force religious institutions or societies to perform or support same-sex marriage ceremonies.
The New Hampshire House had recorded close votes on the gay marriage legislation three times before today's vote—it rejected a bill, then passed it and then rejected a revised bill by only two votes.
The new change in the state's marriage law takes effect Jan. 1, 2010. Any of the state's 600-plus same-sex couples who obtained a civil union can simply convert that certificate into a marriage license.
"New Hampshire has now become the third state to move past civil unions to marriage, recognizing that there is no substitute for the freedom to marry and equality for all," said Evan Wolfson, executive director of the national Freedom to Marry organization.
More attention was focused on gay marriage this week after former vice president Dick Cheney, a staunch conservative, echoed an old position of his—that "I think people ought to be free to enter into any kind of union they wish." He made a similar remark during the 2000 Bush-Cheney campaign against the Democratic ticket. He made his latest remark in response to a question from the audience during a National Press Club forum in Washington, D.C. He also repeated, as he had said before, that he thought the marriage issue should be decided "on a state-by-state basis."
"Different states will make different decisions, but I don't have any problem with that," said Cheney. "I think people ought to get a shot at that."
Wolfson said attention will now shift to New York and New Jersey, whose governors have expressed support for equal marriage rights. According to the New York Times, an anti-gay-marriage group called the National Organization for Marriage has begun airing advertisements on television in New York.
©2009 Keen News Service