NH House Takes Up Competing Marriage Bills

Jim Burroway

February 5th, 2009

The New Hampshire House Judiciary Committee today will hear testimony on two competing bills on same-sex marriage. One bill would repeal New Hampshire’s 2007 civil unions law and further ban same-sex marriage. The bill one would enact same-sex marriages, and provide couples who already entered into a civil union the right to upgrade their legal status to that of a marriage.

New Hampshire Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson will testify in favor of legalizing same-sex marriages.

Joel

February 5th, 2009

Which one is most likely to succeed?

And…

TALK ABOUT OPPOSING VIEWS!

Suricou Raven

February 5th, 2009

None, I would guess. If the legislature approved civil unions in 2007, what is the chance they will ban them again now?

As states go, it’s a quite blue one. 58% democratic, 40% republican (2% empty, and one lonely independant).

At the same time, that’s 40% who are sure to vote against gay marriage – so it wouldn’t take many democrats dissenting to prevent passage of that bill.

I’m guessing that this is going to be a party issue, and the parties are balanced enough that each will be able to block the other.

Timothy Kincaid

February 5th, 2009

Suricou Raven,

We cannot blindly assume that Republicans in New England are anti-gay.

In the 2007 vote in the house for civil unions, 5 Democrats voted no and 26 Republicans voted yes. We don’t know how that would translate when it comes to marriage, but it does show that we cannot make assumptions.

Pender

February 6th, 2009

Yeah, the Granite state has a libertarian streak a mile wide. Could be that they (rightly) see civil rights and equality as libertarian causes — getting the government out of the business of judging us morally for things that do not affect anyone but ourselves.

Trevor

February 6th, 2009

I disagree. I find it perfectly reasonable to assume all Republicans will vote against same-sex marriage ALL the time (cynicism). This is the only responsible assessment of the likely voting outcome. Granted a few Republicans may vote for marriage equality. Like all cynics I’ll be secretly pleased when and if my assumptions are disproven.

John

February 6th, 2009

Then you’d be wrong, Trevor. Even though a large majority of Republican voters did support such amendments in states where they have passed, sizeable minorities did not. Let’s not forget that large numbers of Democrat voters also voted for these amendments in these states as well.

Timothy Kincaid

February 6th, 2009

Trevor, you may wish to be secretly pleased about Wyoming. Sixteen Republicans (39%) joined all Democrats to defeat an anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment. Had this been a party line vote, it would be on the ballot.

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