Breaking: NH House approves marriage equality bill

woot!

every positive vote is one step forward.

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by: Lurleen @ Thu Mar 26, 2009 at 13:09:23 PM CDT

If the Senate passes it

We need to let Governor Lynch know that there will be lots of money donated by LGBT's around the U. S. if he runs for re-election. The money can go to him or to an opponent in the Demcratic primary -- it's up to him.

The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in time of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality. -- John F. Kennedy (inspired by Dante's Inferno)

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by: oldbrit @ Thu Mar 26, 2009 at 13:55:29 PM CDT

A STONE'S THROW FROM NH.

 GLAD activists and that includes us, will be in NH to help. We have donated a substantial amount for this civil MARRIAGE effort. My brother in Christ, +Gene Robinson, is working hard as well.

  The problem is more than the fact that Governor Lynch is a ConservaDem, or closet homophobe, who says that he wants to retain the damnable civil union inferior law.

  Governor Lynch is a very fervent Irish Roman Catholic. Lynch supports the Papenfuhrer and the proxy bishop in NH.
Please ask, yes, Governor Lynch is a papal knight of the Holy Sepulchre. Maybe he wants to be promoted to knight commander, or even earn other papal knighthood orders.

  Irish Roman Catholic Boomer votes and older are ensured if he vetoes this bill, if it reaches his desk. The Senate is tricky, and it is not "D" or "R" alone, as you can see.

  YES, olbrit, the Episcopal Church will give cover to its own churchmen, as will the UCC and other liberal Christian denominations or groups.

   The hypocritical truth is that Governor Lynch is a pro-choice "Catholic" on matters of contraception within marriage or abortion regardless of civil status or reason.
Queerdom is the only "catholic talking point" where he "redeems" himself.

   NEW HAMPSHIRE, VERMONT AND NEW JERSEY ARE PLACES TO FIGHT FOR MARRIAGE. Do you now see why it is absolutely bullcrap to vote for civil unions? Three states that now must fight like hell to get it !

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by: BISHOPRAYMOND @ Thu Mar 26, 2009 at 14:11:01 PM CDT

Well Lynch has plenty of examples

of staunch Roman Catholics who have voted to support equality, right next door in Massachusetts.  And they got re-elected.  No excuses, governor!

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by: Lurleen @ Thu Mar 26, 2009 at 14:16:00 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Don't forget Maine

A lot of good progress is being made there, too.

And once the whole New England doesn't sink into the ocean as a result of equal rights for same-sex couples ... we'll move on from there.

"There are two kinds of people in this world -- the kind who separate the world into two kinds of people, and those who don't."  -- Gloria Steinem

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by: red7eric @ Thu Mar 26, 2009 at 14:20:21 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Unlike VT

I strongly think John Baldacci WILL sign, if Maine Senate and House pass LD 1020. It would really surprise me if he were not to.

Our problem then comes from the haters, but we'll deal with that...

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by: Louise @ Thu Mar 26, 2009 at 15:32:21 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

FOUR HUNDRED IN THE HOUSE AND TWENTY FOUR IN SENATE.

  **********PLEASE NOTE ********************

  The New Hampshire state Senate has 24 members which is
    14 Democrats and 10 Republicans. There are 13 women and  11 men in that body.

  PLEASE REMEMBER THAT THE HOUSE HAS 400 MEMBERS.

  ****************PLEASE NOTE ***************

   The state Senate is Democratic majority, like the House.
    Why would it be difficult to get a majority vote in the Senate....with our blessed Democrats in power? Could it be:  

     1) ConservaDems. Politicians who believe that faggot liberals will vote for them regardless of their betrayal, and

     2) Running interference for the ConservaDem governor.
He will be VERY grateful for Democratic state senators who make him dodge the bullet and not have to veto or touch the bill.

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by: BISHOPRAYMOND @ Thu Mar 26, 2009 at 14:22:37 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

State Senate

A minor correction.  There are currently 14 Democrats and 9 Republicans in the NH Senate.  One of the Republicans resigned after a DUI incident and that seat is vacant.

There will be a special election in a few weeks.  If the vote on this bill is held before the results are certified, we will only need 12 votes to pass the Senate instead of 13, so this could help us a bit.

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by: brianrater @ Thu Mar 26, 2009 at 17:44:07 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

READY, WILLING AND ABLE.....TO CALL INFERIORITY BY ITS SCATOLOGICAL REFERENCE....

Do you know why, when courts ordered marriage and inferiority was served up? and not in my state of MA? I say that the reason why CT went through inferiority before equality was the same reason. A third? There are only two civil marriage states in the United States.

Right now, New Hampshire and Vermont are fighting for civil marriage....and the enemy is not only Republicans but ConservaDems or homophobic Democrats who vote with the GOP.
Why is it tougher? Simple. The homophobes say that inferiority is more than enough, never mind enough.

The whole LGBT activism should be in Concord and Montpelier, NH and VT, and to hell with the other places right now where they are serving doses of inferiority a la carte.

 If two goes to four states, then it strengthens the others. I am not prescient, but all legal scholars and pundits say that California will uphold Prop Hate and the 18,000 marriages as well. That very big F BOMB to faggotry is what they love.

 Write all 23 senators out of 24 senators. One resigned they tell me. That is New Hampshire where they passed it in the House.....with a Democratic huge majority....with three votes...a homophobic majority of Democrats also reside in the Senate.....and the homophobic Democratic governor awaits.

 In Vermont, the Senate passed it, and now it goes to the House where again, as in NH, the Democrats control both houses, but so do the homophobes. A Republican governor is poised to veto.

 The polite, gentrified way is to say aw shucks, and the predictable passive responses. The other is to hit the streets, and put primary opponents in all the D homophobe districts. Right now, it is time for NH senators and VT representatives to feel the heat on the street where they live.

 Yes, I am giving credit to history, as small as it is. Massachusetts courts said marriage, and that is what we fought for....and the rest, like CT, said - okay give us civil unions if you want....we won't fight it....until a few did and years later........ and now two other states who said the same thing are having a hard time getting promoted from inferiority to equality.

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by: BISHOPRAYMOND @ Thu Mar 26, 2009 at 19:05:32 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

For most of the country, civil unions aren't "bullcrap"

I think you're not giving much credit to history here.  In two of the three states where courts have legalized same-sex marriage, civil unions or domestic partnerships came first.  There's a lot of evidence that these "half measures" set the stage for full marriage equality, by getting straight people used to the idea.  It's telling that in every state where marriage is realistically within reach through the legislature (except, perhaps, New York), there has been some sort of state-wide relationship recognition that paved the way.

And even if in some northeast and west coast states we could jump from nothing to marriage, what about the vast middle of the country?  What about states like Illinois or New Mexico, where marriage has no chance of passage (at least not for many years) but civil unions could be had now?  Are you really willing to call the efforts of activist in those states "bullcrap?"

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by: samritchie @ Thu Mar 26, 2009 at 17:11:59 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I don't know anything about IL

so what you're suggesting may be accurate there. but you don't know anything about NM, so we're even.

A seven year fight for 'gay marriage' through the NM legislature has yielded nothing to date.

The states in which marriage equality has been passed through the legislature are: California.

The states in which 'gay marriage' has become law ONLY AFTER litigation required legislatures to give the queers 'something' are: VT, NH, NJ.

Do we have the-rights-that-dare-not-speak-their-name in some other state I'm unaware of? (Yes, several other states have parking-sticker-rights DP registries. CT also passed CUs along with a DOMA while ramping up litigation, but there are only two other states in which that's still procedurally possible.)

That's all we know about legislating our way to half the loaf and then asking nicely for the butter.

I don't agree with the contentiously phrased contention that legislating our way to 'gay marriage' is 'bull'.

But your argument has no factual basis at the moment. Yes, it's telling that in the states most likely to pass marriage equality, gay marriage came first; what it tells us is that states that are more likely to recognize our relationships are more likely to recognize our relationships.

Later in the session, IF VT and NH are able to legislate equality, we will have some data points to add to the picture, but keep in mind that both those states got gay marriage form their legislatures by asking the courts for marriage.

But wait, there's more!

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by: PhoenixRising @ Thu Mar 26, 2009 at 17:44:57 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

What about the governer?

Has there been anything to indicate a veto?

I am the lizard queen!

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by: RainbowPhoenix @ Thu Mar 26, 2009 at 14:51:04 PM CDT

An interesting opinion ....

..... from Democratic Representative Jim Splaine from the seacoast town of Portsmouth, who is open and the sponsor of several bills (including the civil unions bill last year):

If the House passes it, I think the State Senate will also do so.  This is an issue of fairness and equality, and this will put an era of discrimination behind us. I think Governor John Lynch will let it become law, having let "the citizen's legislature" have the dialogue.  So far, he's had the courage to allow that discussion to continue, and that's to his credit.

 

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by: Ed Tracey @ Thu Mar 26, 2009 at 19:33:20 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Dear John Lynch:

Don't believe in "gay marriage"?  Then don't have one.

Leave it at that, instead of foisting your religion onto others.

"Our Liberties We Prize and Our Rights We Will Maintain" -- Iowa state motto

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by: Sportin' Life @ Thu Mar 26, 2009 at 15:00:26 PM CDT

Wonderful news!

And ever so much more positive and better news than the diary I have been working on for the last hour...

We MUST have universal protections and hate crime legislation for LGBTQ. It's too late for Scott, though.  

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by: Louise @ Thu Mar 26, 2009 at 15:29:43 PM CDT

Transgender non-discrimination fails

The Transgender non-discrimination bill was just voted down in the house.  181-149.   :(

I really thought that that bill had a better chance of success than marriage.  The tone of the debate publicly was shamefull to put it mildly.

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by: brianrater @ Thu Mar 26, 2009 at 16:33:03 PM CDT

Not the count I saw at the NH State site

The count I saw was 172-157.  We lost by 15.  But get this:

52 Democratic reps failed to vote

17 Republican reps failed to vote

So we could have won this thing if more reps had actually voted!

:Shakes head:

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by: xrk9854 @ Fri Mar 27, 2009 at 03:24:35 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

How annoying!

to have lost by only 15 votes, and with 50 Dems not voting. I'm writing some letters to my "Representatives" today.

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by: zythyra @ Fri Mar 27, 2009 at 11:36:35 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

bittersweet

I'm glad for the marriage victory, but as a transperson, the loss of gender identity protection is especially difficult.

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by: zythyra @ Thu Mar 26, 2009 at 16:52:48 PM CDT

where is the news on the gender-identity bill?

I hadn't heard that it had been defeated...


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Mad Professah Lectures http://madprofessah.com
"In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act." George Orwell

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by: Mad Professah @ Thu Mar 26, 2009 at 20:32:27 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

yaaahooo!

The looter rich much prefer working with Democrats like Obama and the Clintons - they're greedier, they fool more people and they're able to get away with a lot more than Republicans.  

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by: donal1944 @ Fri Mar 27, 2009 at 20:41:42 PM CDT