Same-sex marriage legislation stalls in New Hampshire

By Michael J.W. Stickings

The governor was on board, as was the Senate, but New Hampshire's House of Representatives has narrowly voted down a compromise bill that would legalize same-sex marriage while providing an out for religious groups opposed to same-sex marriage.

And all because a few Democratic same-sex marriage proponents who objected to the concessions voted with Republican opponents to defeat the compromise bill:

The state's House of Representatives objected to language in the bill that would have allowed religious groups to decline to participate in same-sex marriage ceremonies or to offer gay couples other services.

A handful of gay-rights proponents sided with Republicans in the Democratic-controlled House to vote down the bill 188-186 Wednesday, hours after the Senate approved the gay-marriage legislation by 14-10 along party lines.

A version of the bill with more limited religious protections passed the state's House of Representatives on March 26.

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To strike a compromise, both chambers had been asked to approve language that would give clergy and others affiliated with religious organizations a number of legal protections, including the right to decline to marry same-sex couples or to provide gay couples with services such as counseling.

The wording was added by Governor John Lynch, a centrist Democrat who said previously that marriage should be exclusively between a man and a woman but agreed last week to sign the bill if his changes were made.

So what now? Clearly, a majority of state legislators is in favour of same-sex marriage legalization. The question is how extensive the protections for religious groups ought to be -- as if these bigots need to be protected from some marriage-crazy homosexual menace! The two houses should be able to hammer out another compromise, but what about Governor Lynch, a Democrat, who "has said he would veto gay marriage if his wording was not adopted." He "bullied" legislators, according to Rep. Steve Vaillancourt, a gay Republican who was "a leading voice against the amendment securing religious liberties," but perhaps he, too, will agree to a new compromise, assuming he can set aside his centrist dogmatism.

As I have written before, America has changed for the better, and is changing still, and now, at long last, the state-approved bigotry that has kept gays and lesbians apart from their fellow citizens, and that has denied them their civil rights, is being rolled back and, one hopes, obliterated. There is still such bigotry out there, of course, in the hearts and minds of many, as well as in the laws of states from coast to coast, but at least, at the very least, states like Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, Maine, New York, and, yes, even Iowa are leading the way into a more just future.

New Hampshire should be the next to join that progressive group.