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News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyJanuary 12th, 2011
The AP is reporting
The House Republican’s legislative agenda will not include repealing gay marriage.
House Republican Leader D.J. Bettencourt confirmed to The Associated Press on Wednesday that jobs and the economy will be the top priorities that Republicans will use as their scorecard to measure themselves by for the next two years.
Bettencourt said social issues will take a back seat. He said one abortion initiative will be on the agenda but he declined to say what it is.
Perhaps at 27, Bettencourt represents a younger generation Republican Party.
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Michael Ejercito
January 12th, 2011
Republicans in new Hampshire are not a socially conservative as Democrats in West Virginia.
Tone
January 12th, 2011
Perhaps they’ve realized that they’re on the wrong side of history. Is that too optimistic?
Jim Burroway
January 12th, 2011
He’s Republican leader at age 27??? Wow! That younger generation truly is our best hope.
Stefan
January 12th, 2011
He reminds me of the New Jersey Senate Republican who was only 37 who strongly supported marriage equality.
andrewb
January 12th, 2011
No, Bettancourt represents good old fashioned Yankee conservatism. Some of us are old enough to remember Bill Weld, Republican governor of Massachusetts, who did far more for the gay community than his Dem predecessors did — and yes, his administration put the first GSA’s in place — and it was one of the first priorities. Where I grew up (outside Boston), it was good to be tight with a dollar, but tolerant of your neighbors — whether gay, straight, white, Jewish, Black, or foreign-born, as long as they worked hard, kept their house, and their kids didn’t terrorize the neighborhood. Those values weren’t universal, but unlike many other areas of our country, they were mainstream… 30 years ago.
Now, it’s entirely possible that Bettancourt truly represents a new generation of conservatives… one who realizes that once social issues are removed from the agenda, gays stop voting as a bloc (and many vote as fiscal conservatives). Perhaps he’s strategizing ;)
L. Junius Brutus
January 13th, 2011
02/17/2010 Constitutional Amendment to Define Marriage
CACR 28 N “Inexpedient to Legislate” Vote Passed – House
(201 – 135)
02/17/2010 Repealing Same-Sex Marriage
HB 1590 Y “Inexpedient to Legislate” Vote Passed – House
(210 – 109)
http://www.votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=42659
—
He voted against repealing gay marriage (yes on killing the bill to repeal), and for a constitutional amendment. Interesting.
customartist
January 13th, 2011
This means nothing.
Republicans play the political game – and they would criminalize us if and when the time comes. THAT will be in the form of an initiative to Amend the US Constitution.
They are merely keeping this on the down-low for now. Don’t be fooled at election time!
BlackDog
January 13th, 2011
“Republicans play the political game”
Yeah, and if something’s a loser they lose it. The basic Republican is pretty mercenary, really (unlike the “social conservatives” who really should simply be termed reactionaries because there’s nothing conservative about them.) if something gets them money and/or votes they’ll use it. If not, they won’t.
Of course that means if wearing white after labor day somehow became an issue, they’d pass laws about it.
So the whole mercenary thing DOES cause problems, too. Repubs seem to be losing interest in Teh Gay but a lot of ’em are going after illegal immigrants for exactly that reason.
Emelye Waldherr
January 13th, 2011
Wow! This is great news! Now all that money the LGB(t) orgs raised to fight the challenge can be put towards a nondiscrimination law that actually covers the *entire* community!
Will it happen???
L. Junius Brutus
January 13th, 2011
Emelye: “Wow! This is great news! Now all that money the LGB(t) orgs raised to fight the challenge can be put towards a nondiscrimination law that actually covers the *entire* community!”
Yeah. One covering gays, lesbians and bisexuals.
Bruno
January 13th, 2011
I still don’t see him saying anywhere “I won’t ever allow a vote on this.” He’s just prudently prioritizing based on the platform the NH GOP ran on. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them put repeal up in ’12.
andrewb
January 14th, 2011
Blackdog – I agree with you totally, with one exception. I’d replace “Republican” with “politician”, lest we forget how quickly some of our favorite Dems have been to sell us out for political expediency / necessity (depending ones perspective) over the years.
Bruno — I suspect you’re right — there are still many in the base that will remain more or less passive if he “prioritizes”, but will go on the attack if he appears to have relented on gay issues… and as everyone saw last year, a small vocal minority can wreak havoc in the primaries…
Emelye Waldherr
January 18th, 2011
L. Junius Brutus wrote, “Yeah. One covering gays, lesbians and bisexuals.”
New Hampshire already has one that does that.
Does that mean it’s legal for you to discriminate against people on the basis of their gender identity? You betcha! And judging from your reply, you seem to think that’s alright.
I think you ought to be ashamed of yourself.
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