Wednesday, March 21, 2012

New Hampshire keeps marriage equality, deals NOM a SERIOUS loss

You may accuse me of extreme hyperbole with this one but just minutes ago, the National Organization for Marriage was dealt with a tremendous upset in New Hampshire:

The New Hampshire House of Representatives has defeated an attempt to roll back the state’s marriage equality bill with a vote of 133-202. At stake first was the absurd amendment proposed by Rep. David Bates (R), which would have re-implemented civil unions and given voters a chance to weigh in on that decision in a non-binding way. That amendment failed 162-188. Then, there was a fierce parliamentary debate as to whether to consider a humorous amendment proposed by Rep. Seth Cohn (R) that would have prohibited marriage between people who are left-handed, but the effort to bring it forth was defeated. During the debate on the bill as originally proposed, Bates and other opponents of equality invoked comparisons between same-sex marriage and incest while protesting when others juxtaposed the measure with the racial segregation of the past.

NOM expected to win this one, even to the point of bragging on its blog about how the issue of marriage equality led Democrats to lose in the 2010 elections. It is true that New Hampshire has a Republican majority who was not only serious about reducing marriage equality to civil unions, but also overriding the veto threat by Gov. John Lynch.

I guess overriding the veto is not necessary now seeing that the bill FAILED!

Kudos to New Hampshire legislators for preserving fairness.


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5 comments:

Spencer Hamilton Blog said...

I am really glad that NH has now decided that they will uphold the freedom to enter into marriage with another adult of your choice. It is great and I am glad NOM now has a black eye on its efforts

I also remember the big deal when NOM would speak of NY and how we didn't get it with a Democratic majority, but now since Marriage Equality is now receiving bipartisan support, they can't make that claim truthfully anymore

Lori Makes Quilts said...

Awesomely awesome. Glad those legislators decided to live in the present and really glad to see NOM go down.

Mykelb said...

On to MN, NC and WA states.

Prospero said...

Almost as good - Mags being shut down by Starbucks!

Anonymous said...

The Tea Party was mostly Evangelicals who rebranded themselves to get elected to state legislatures. Once they got into office they reverted back to their old selves. The general public has woken up and see these folks are trying to make everyone follow their religion. NH has always been more libertarian in addition to the fear we now see in the Teavanglelical politicians as we near elections.