Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Is New Hampshire Going Back To The Dark Ages?


Seriously, it's like watching a bad game of tennis.
It's legal. It's not. It's legal. It's not.
And now, New Hampshire lawmakers have moved closer to a vote that would repeal the state's 15-month-old marriage equality law and replace it with civil unions for any unmarried adults.
Including relatives. Relatives?.
The House Judiciary Committee voted 11-6 to recommend that marriage equality be erased  from the law  books and to establish civil unions for any unmarried adults competent to enter into a contract; the committee did, however, recommend killing a second bill that would simply repeal gay marriage.
Just turn all those same-sex marriages in civil unions, eh? Except that the bill would not enact the same civil unions law that was in effect before marriage equality. That law granted gay men and women all the rights and responsibilities of marriage except the right to call themselves married. 
The newly proposed civil unions law would be open to any two adults and would let anyone refuse to recognize the unions. The newly proposed civil unions law would allow anyone to discriminate against the couples in employment, housing and public accommodations based on religious or moral beliefs. 
However, the newly proposed repeal bills would not apply to gay marriages that have already occurred, but would stop new ones. So, some of the gays can be married in new Hampshire, but the rest cannot. Talk about inequality, eh?
The full House will vote on the bills early next year, and if they pass the repeal bill, it would go to the Senate. So, it ain't exactly a done deal.
And Democratic Governor John Lynch has repeatedly said he will veto attempts by the Republican-controlled Legislature to repeal the law, which he signed in 2009. New Hampshire enacted civil unions in 2007 for same-sex couples and two years later replaced that law with the marriage law. Lynch also signed the civil unions law.
My question is this?
Why are the Republicans spending so much time worrying about marriage equality? Is there no job crisis in New Hampshire? No mortgage crisis? No economic worries? No healthcare woes? Is New Hampshire doing so fantastically that the legislators, the Republican legislators, need only focus on whether or not gay folks can marry?
Surely, people of New Hampshire, you are not fine with this.

4 comments:

  1. Actually this would be an open and shut case, I think. Although slightly different from the marriages that took place in California before Prop. 8, it would be the same situation where a precedent was already set whereby gay marriage was legal. Therefore, one only has to look to see that it's taking away rights, making a certain class of people unequal, and that should be that.

    I say let the republicans try it. If they can actually get it off the ground, we can kill it in court.

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  2. Will a judge be brave enough to impose a permanent injunction on this bad law when it passes next year? Not if he hopes to be reelected.

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  3. Don't despair yet. The fat lady has not sung. Lots for us to do before and after January when this will come to vote in the NH legislature.

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  4. What else can one expect from the out-of-touch, obsolete and irrelevant Republican Party?

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