NH House approves gay marriage bill
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| Thu, 03-26-2009 - 8:47pm |
By NORMA LOVE – 5 hours ago
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The state House on Thursday voted narrowly to make New Hampshire the third state to allow gay couples to marry.
The bill, which passed the House 186-179, next goes to the Senate, where its future is uncertain. Democratic Gov. John Lynch opposes gay marriage but has not said specifically that he would veto it — a position that spokesman Colin Manning reiterated after the vote.
Two years ago, the Legislature approved, and Lynch signed, civil unions for gays, which provide all the rights of marriage, except in name.
Currently, only Connecticut and Massachusetts allow gay couples to marry. The Vermont Senate sent a gay marriage bill to the House this week, but Gov. Jim Douglas says he will veto it if it reaches his desk.
Supporters say it is discriminatory to exclude gays from marriage. Opponents argue marriage is a sacred religious institution that would be cheapened by allowing gays to marry.
Civil unions are not marriage, said Rep. David Pierce, D-Etna. The law should respect and support his life with his partner and their two daughters.
"When my children grow up to be old enough to know what discrimination is, they should not have to learn they were the objects of it," he said.
He said gays should be allowed to marry, just as women won the right to vote and people of different races the right to marry.
"It is separate but equal all over again. Would you volunteer to ride at the back of the bus? Would you volunteer to give up your marriage license for a civil union license?" said Pierce.
Brookline Democratic Rep. Melanie Levesque, 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."
The first attempt to pass the bill fell one vote short, but opponents were unable to kill it. The House then reconsidered and passed the measure Thursday. A dozen House Republicans voted to pass the bill; 26 Democrats opposed it.
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.
State Republican Party Chairman John H. Sununu criticized the House vote as an "attempt by the liberal Democrats in the Legislature to impose their San Francisco agenda on the state of New Hampshire."
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.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ia0uHb3aRkxBGOF4NgaTGIYjKFhwD975TDF80
Kate
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I might as well piggyback this onto the OP :)
McCain's Chief Strategist Comes Out in
Kate
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Understand I am in full support of gay marriage and this is posted with tongue in cheek. It is response to some of the reasons people give in op for being against gay marriage (they are so absurd.)
TOP 10 REASONS WHY GAY MARRIAGE SHOULD BE ILLEGAL
1)Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.
02) Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.
03) Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.
04) Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, black people still can't marry white people, and divorce is still illegal.
05) Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Brittany Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.
06) Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children.
07) Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.
08) Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America.
09) Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.
Love it!
Kate
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Kate
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I am in favor of civil unions for Gays, but I oppose marriage because I believe a marriage is for men and women.
~I
Kate
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I am constantly amazed that people think its okay to tell other people how to live their lives, especially in this case, where someone's private life is concerned. To all the against-gay-marriage people I say - separate is not equal, and in
~Heather~
Kate
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Kate
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A Prop 8 Crusader Leaves The GOP
Complete piece see link.....
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-03-29/a-prop-8-crusader-leaves-the-gop/
What drove evangelical multimillionaire Howard Ahmanson—the man behind Prop 8—away from the Republicans? It wasn't Sarah Palin. He talks to The Daily Beast’s Kathleen Parker.
Multimillionaire Howard Ahmanson, one of the nation’s top evangelical Christian philanthropists and one of three funders of Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage, recently joined the Democratic Party. Although Ahmanson’s support for Prop 8 earned him critics on the left, his many philanthropic interests funded through his Fieldstead Institute are most often nonpartisan and nonpolitical, from AIDS prevention to public transportation. In an exclusive interview with columnist Kathleen Parker, he explains why he switched political affiliations, what he thinks of President Obama, and why he has no gay friends........ see link