New Hampshire Senate passes Marriage Equality Bill

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They did it! The New Hampshire Senate just passed HB 436, the Marraige Equality Bill. The votes were 13 in favor 11 opposed.

The Concord Monitor:

The New Hampshire Senate voted, 13-11, today to allow adult same-sex couples to marry, approving an amended version of a House-passed bill after a vote to kill the legislation altogether failed by the same margin.

The bill passed by the Senate recognizes a distinction between civil and religious marriages and allows religious denominations to decide whether they will conduct religious marriages for gay or lesbian couples. Civil marriages would be available to both heterosexual and same-sex couples under the law. “This bill recognizes the sanctity of religious marriage and the diversity of religious beliefs about marriage while still providing equal access to civil marriage to all New Hampshire citizens,” said Sen. Maggie Hassan, an Exeter Democrat.

The legislation cannot advance to the governor for his signature or veto unless both houses approve the same version.

The bill was SUPPOSED to go to Governor John Lynch’s desk but because this is an amended version, it now goes back to the House AND THEN the Governor’s desk. The House already approved their version of HB 436 not too long ago by a slim margin. I expect the amended version to pass in the House again. Mike Caulfeld of Blue Hampshire expects the House will pass it.

First Vermont, now New Hampshire, next Maine!

More to come.  

15 thoughts on “New Hampshire Senate passes Marriage Equality Bill

  1. I grew up in Orford (on the Connecticut River) as a kid/teen and it’s in NH where I came out, so I am pleased indeed.  

  2. …is Bill Loeb spinning in his grave.

    I can hardly wait to hear what John Sununu the Elder (“Restoring the NH GOP Since 2009”) has to say about this.  

  3. … helped save-the-day.

    The Democrats hold a 14-10 majority in the Senate, but all ten GOP members indicated their opposition. “OK, can we hold serve?” was our thoughts.

    But State Senator Betsi DeVries (from the queen city of Manchester) was believed to be against the bill.

    And State Senator Deb Reynolds (from a more rural district up North, based in Plymouth) voted against a proposed bill in committee last week. Add to that the Manchester Democrat Lou D’Allesandro (who said he was leaning against it) and we were staring defeat in the face.

    But due to changes in the bill (one specifically said that no house of worship could be compelled to conduct a marriage for same-sex couples) that was negotiated on Tuesday evening – both DeVries and Reynolds voted in favor, saving the day. Reynolds was quoted thusly:

    She said voters in her district told her they favor the legislation, and urged the Senate to vote for an amendment that was drawn up Tuesday night.

     

  4. In related news, The U.S. House just passed, 249-175, the Matthew Shepard Act which would expand the federal hate-crimes statute to cover crimes motivated by sexual orientation, perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.  

  5. It will be fun to read the Manchester Union Leader tomorrow:)  Ole Bill Loeb and his wife Nackey, and the rest of them, that made the state as conservative as Mississippi or Alabama, that refused to recognize ML King day, really must be spinning with indignation in their graves now.  I used to live in NH and remember how redneck and facist it once was. What a change.  

  6. But they were posting an AP piece so it’s no real surprise:

    GAY MARRIAGE

    Passed, returned to the House, which rejected a similar, but less comprehensive proposal this year…

    Nice try!

  7. Have you heard any predictions about Maine?

    I lived in Maine for quite a few years and I still don’t get Maine politics.  I would say they’re “fiercely independent,” only they’re not all that fierce about it.  It’s more like they’re inherently independent – they don’t give it another thought.

    One thing I do know about Maine is that there are pockets of religious – I call them extremists – but VERY religious people in Maine’s rural areas.  I’m talking about real southern-style speaking in tongues, jumping on pews, rolling-on-the-church-floor pentecostals.  I’m not exaggerating – I’ve actually witnessed this.

    Maine used to have more than one television evangelist, too.  I don’t know if there are still as many as there used to be, but one of the most successful, Pastor Ronnie Libby and his Souls Harbor Church, is still around. His church, and other big, big churches around Bangor used to fill their several-acre parking lots with the faithful every Sunday.

    Jerry Fallwell used to have a church in Bangor – or at least he preached regularly at a Bangor, ME, church for a while in the ’80s.  He was a big draw.

    Even “mainstream” religion in Maine is (or was, maybe; I haven’t lived there for more than 25 years) pretty conservative, and pretty popular.  

    I remember, when we first moved to a small, rural community in north-central Maine, the biggest question on the minds of our new neighbors was which church would we be going to?  Each of our neighbors came, in turn, to invite us to their church.  We even went to a couple of them out of courtesy.

    When we were apparently unconvinced of our need for weekly salvation, each of the ministers, pastors, or whatever you call them came to visit.  Nice, pleasant, but unrelenting visits.

    I’d say they were all glad to see us go.

  8. Yep, only in NH.  I also remember Meldrim Thompson and the seabrook thing.  I was a seabrook protestor.  I also left NH in the 90’s to move to the “socialist republic of Vermont,” as the NH folks called it, in the mid-90’s. I think Steve Merrill was governor then, cut to the Thompson vintage.  I remember the sayings of Uncle Mel. I remember some legislator from Nashua wanting to refuse fed money for education because he thought that would give them excess control over the schools.  I remember Sununu, sunuknu, as we called him, even met him once.  

    I, too, am almost stunned with awe at the bluing of the state.  It is still a shock.  When I left it almost felt like us liberals were a hunted breed.  

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