New Hampshire Marriage Hearing on Wednesday

Timothy Kincaid

April 12th, 2009

From the Boston Globe:

The Senate will hold a hearing Wednesday on whether to make New Hampshire the fourth state to allow gay couples to marry.

The House narrowly passed the measure last month. Democratic Gov. John Lynch opposes gay marriage but has not said specifically that he would veto it.

Someone should inform the Globe that though Iowa is outside of New England, it still is a state. New Hampshire would be the sixth state to allow gay couples to marry and the fifth in which same-sex marriages could still be performed.

State sanctioned same-sex marriages were allowed in the following order:

  • Massachusetts: May 17, 2004 onward
  • Iowa: August 31, 2007 (one couple) and again from April 27, 2009 onward
  • California: June 16, 2008 through November 4, 2008
  • Connecticut: November 12, 2008 onward
  • Vermont: September 1, 2009 onward

elaygee

April 12th, 2009

veRmont

Timothy Kincaid

April 12th, 2009

thanks, fixed

patrick

April 12th, 2009

Thank you for making the point about 5 states having recognized the right although only 4 recognize it.

As the stories of Iowa and Vermont broke recently, it drove me crazy that so many news outlets just ignore California.

Even if Prop 8 is upheld by the court, the fact is that the court determined that same-sex couples have the right to be married.

The electorate took it upon themselves to strip (or try to anyway) a minority group of their constitutional rights.

It may be a minor distinction, but it is a very important one.

HappyCat

April 12th, 2009

The year, 2090 in a 6th History class. A student stands up and mentions California taking away Civil Rights. And at the same time, African-Americans are still a minority and there is a constitutional amendment on the ballot to make African-Americans property and slaves again. All will be legal because the precedent was set in 2008 to do so. And the people wanting to make African-Americans slaves again refer to the bible and claim it is God’s Law.

nuncio

April 13th, 2009

I agree HappyCat –
Slavery *is* in the bible. Also don’t forget that women are also considered the property of men, and have no rights whatsoever.
As in the words of Mythbusters – this one’s “Plausible”

jb

April 13th, 2009

Maine will have a hearing on similar legislation on April 22th at 9 am at the Statehouse in Augusta!

oddjob

April 14th, 2009

Thank you for making the point about 5 states having recognized the right although only 4 recognize it.

But CA’s court decision was reversed. If you’re going to use supreme court decisions as the benchmark then Hawaii was the first state to recognize gay marriage, in 1995; Alaska was the second.

Timothy Kincaid

April 14th, 2009

oddjob,

The listing is of those states in which same-sex marriages legally occured (as the Globe put it “state to allow gay couples to marry”).

Thus neither Hawaii nor Alaska are on the list.

Further, the CA Supreme Court was not “reversed”. Language was added to the State Constitution that would make the decision moot but, as the Court has heard arguments against the constitutionality of this language, the situation is in limbo. It would be inaccurate, as well as disrespectful to the 18,000 or so couples who legally married, to act as though they did not take place.

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