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Ready for Civil Unions?

by: Nicholas Gunn

Tue Dec 26, 2006 at 14:52:51 PM EST
(Will the newly blue legislature have it in them to take this on? - promoted by Dean)

New Hampshire may be ready for civil unions.

New Hampshire residents oppose gay marriage but look more favorably on civil unions.

Fifty-five percent of the 600 people interviewed opposed allowing gays to marry, compared with 35 percent in favor. Ten percent weren't sure.

Asked their opinion of civil unions, 44 percent favored allowing it. Forty percent opposed civil unions and 16 percent weren't sure.

Click on 'There's More' for the rest.
Nicholas Gunn :: Ready for Civil Unions?
I take these numbers with a grain of salt, for two reasons.  They come from Research 2000, and they're significantly different from a similar survey two years ago.

55% of New Hampshire residents are in favor of "a law that will allow the state to issue civil marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples". Only 41% are opposed.

Whatever the public support, it is heartening to see the Concord Monitor continue its coverage of the issue of Marriage Equality from a fair perspective.  The Monitor also found out John Lynch's stance on the issue:

Gov. John Lynch, a Democrat, opposes gay marriage "but thinks we need to make sure the rights of all of our citizens are protected," spokesman Colin Manning said.

Lynch supported domestic-partnership benefits for employees of the state university system when he was a trustee, and he hopes to extend similar benefits to state workers in their next contract, Manning said.

This session, Lynch favors more study of civil unions, Manning said. He said Lynch believes an earlier study committee did a poor job.

The public is on board, the officials are on board, so what's the problem?

Sen. Peter Burling, D-Cornish, said he personally feels that it's discriminatory to deny same-sex couples the legal rights that married couples have. But he said he worries that a civil unions debate would divert energy and attention from "broad-spectrum issues" such as the state budget and overhauling the school funding system.

We may just be too busy this session, and can't divert attention from "broad spectrum issues".  Well, I hope you're wrong Mr. Burling.  Civil Unions legislation won't affect every New Hampshireite, but that's hardly a reason to continue institutional discrimination when everyone knows it must end.
Poll
Is NH Ready for Civil Unions?
Yes
No
Not Important
Results

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Ready for Civil Unions? | 26 comments
Research 2000 (4.00 / 1)
If memory serves, R-2000 polls are crap and not to be trusted.

They should try to get the civil union legislation through now though. Lynch should not run from this through the use of the "needs more study" method.

That is, take the small amount of courage it takes to jump this process forward by committing to the goal, and then spend the study group time on the implementation.



asdf (0.00 / 0)
I'm more impressed by the efforts of the Concord Monitor to keep this issue in the public eye.  I think they commissioned the poll, to give them an excuse to write another story on it.

If only they commissioned a poll that was well done...

[ Parent ]
In their defense (0.00 / 0)
It's probably the best poll they can afford.


[ Parent ]
Would the UNH Survey Center (0.00 / 0)
have been more expensive?

That would have given a longitudinal look, too...

[ Parent ]
My guess is yes, UNH would have been more (4.00 / 2)
I believe R-2000's niche is cheap polls for newspapers. I don't think Andy Smith & co. are interested in doing polls with the MoE's that R-2000 tolerates.

This is all based on my crappy memory of the election polls, nothing current..


[ Parent ]
A few unconnected thoughts in no intentional order. (0.00 / 0)
1) I agree with Sen. Burling that the civil union issue will give lots of leverage to the other side to wage all kinds of culture war nonsense.  But that shouldn't hold them back at all from getting this done.  Furthermore, I don't think that, once passed, it will have any negative effect on the party for the next round of elections (quite the opposite, I think, considering how fast progress is being made on GLBT issues relative to other civil rights issues).  It also happens to be the right thing to do.

2)Whenever I hear Gov. Lynch's opposition to gay marriage reported, I feel like my head is going to explode.  And why is he mum on civil unions? Leadership, please. A word from him could really help the legislature jump start the issue.  People vote for Republicans because they have ideas.  They may be bad ideas, but bad ideas are better than no ideas (hat tip, Lewis Black).

3) The Union Leader's head will explode when it learns that 70% of NH supports moving the drop-out age to 18.

4) I found this graf to be most interesting:

On other issues, a majority opposed an income tax (54 percent) and a plurality (48 percent) opposed a sales tax as a dedicated funding source for education. Although Lynch and most Democratic candidates for the Legislature ran in opposition to sales and income taxes, a majority of Democratic voters surveyed said they would favor the taxes for education.

Sounds like either a party leadership out of touch with its base, or a party leadership that got to the top through the short route of right-wing framing, or both.

5) 1-4 should be taken with a grain of salt, for the polling issues mentioned by Mike above and Laura somewhere on dKos in respect to the latest pres poll.

Thanks for diarying this, nhcollegedem.  I had it on the docket, and I'm glad it got picked up before my own attempt.

Are you looking at a different source? (0.00 / 0)
I see no mention of the income tax in the Monitor article...

And in any case, after the whupping that Mark Fernald got in 2002, I'm skeptical about a poll that shows such openness to an income or sales tax.

[ Parent ]
Linky goodness... (4.00 / 1)
...under the heading for Funding Education
[ Parent ]
I agree (4.00 / 1)
New Hampshire Democrats, to some extent, are running away from their base.  John Lynch will quickly get on my nerves if he continues to position himself entirely to the right of his democratic base. 

The Union Leader has more on the Lynch 'position.'

This session, Lynch favors more study of civil unions, Manning said. He said Lynch believes an earlier study committee did a poor job.

Mr. Lynch, we've already had a study of marriage in New Hampshire, commissioned by your predecessor.  He loaded the commission with religious conservatives who were opposed to marriage.  The people's views were clear, however, when in every public hearing an overwhelming majority of attendees favored civil marriage for gays and lesbians.

There are thousands of New Hampshireites who are being institutionally discriminated against by your government.  We need leadership, please.

[ Parent ]
Blue Jersey, FWIW, (0.00 / 0)
has a Think Equal project up and running about the difference between civil union and gay marriage.
Terie Norelli's take: (0.00 / 0)
from the Monitor:

Other issues will likely stir debate, such as proposals to establish civil unions or legalize marriage for same-sex couples. Lynch has said he opposes gay marriage; he has not said how he feels about civil unions but believes the Legislature should study the issue first.

Norelli said she believes the state should end discrimination in all instances, but she would defer to the gay and lesbian community before deciding whether civil unions or marriage would be the better solution. "As someone who enjoys all the rights of heterosexuals, I'm not sure that I'm the one that should be making that decision about what's the right way to go," she said, adding that she was "speaking as Terie Norelli" and not as the voice of the Democratic majority.


Good (0.00 / 0)
I'm glad Speaker Norelli is on board.  Hopefully, all these fair minded Democrats will be compelled to take action.

I like how she put it: "she would defer to the gay and lesbian community before deciding whether civil unions or marriage would be the better solution."

This is a very fair way to approach it.  Rather than studying the issue to decide if Gays and Lesbians deserve equal rights, she'd ask the GLBT community the best way to ensure our equal rights.

[ Parent ]
Pass the bill! (0.00 / 0)
I hope the legislature passed civil unions this year  the Democrats may not be in the majority forever, so lets get it done now while we have the chance. 
What do you mean? (0.00 / 0)
Why do you think we won't be in the Majority forever?  I was counting on holding on to it for 130 years!
[ Parent ]
First Things First. (0.00 / 0)
Although I do not doubt the importance of the issue of civil unions, if we do not do something about the issue of school funding first there will not be anybody left in New Hampshire to consider a civil union.
[ Parent ]
gradysdad (4.00 / 1)
I don't think anyone is suggesting that Civil Unions Legislation is the top priority of the new Democratic Majority. 

There will be a large number of bills passed this session, however, and there is no reason that we can't address this issue.

[ Parent ]
We need to fix school funding (0.00 / 0)
But there are 1,300 bills pending this session, including several on marriage equality.

I agree that it would be a mistake if the Dems seemed to be ignoring the nuts and bolts issues of making the government run and focusing instead on only those issues dearest to the activist base. But we should be able to work on both.

[ Parent ]
I don't see why we can't do both (0.00 / 0)
Democrats should add civil unions to the legislative aganda if it is not already part of it.

I want three things from the new Democratic majority this year:

1: Solve education funding once and for all.
2: Address global warming and pass legislation to cut our state's carbon emissions.
3: Pass civil union legislation

[ Parent ]
Keep Expectations Lower (4.00 / 1)
I am worried about setting goals and expectations too high.  We have a part time volunteer legislature.  We have a deadline imposed by the Courts to define "adequate education" by July and we have a state budget that needs passing.  Unless I am underestimating the complexity of these issues, we are not going to be able to solve everything in the first year of this session.

Everyone needs to be patient and understanding.  The Republicans have been in control for years and they never solved anything. It is foolish to think that now that the Democrats have a majority, everything will be solved almost immediately. I hope that I am wrong, and we need to strive higher always, but we also need to be realistic.

[ Parent ]
Monitor Editorial Weighs In Dec 28th (4.00 / 1)
The Monitor has made its feeling known in today's editorial.
The 2007 Legislature will see at least two bills to make civil unions legal for same-sex couples. In response, Gov. John Lynch has suggested, through a spokesman, that he may deploy one of the most potent weapons ever designed to kill time, a committee. He should not make good on that threat.

Emphasis mine.

Gradysdad does have a good point about the volunteer legislature and the time alloted for legislation. The House meets in full session, for what 2x week for 5-6 months? It is important for us to have realistic expectations.

The "Tinfoil Hat" side of me suspects that the Ed Funding issue has been allowed to stick around so long precisely because as long as it is our #1 priority we will not be able to address the other aspects of a progressive agenda. For that reason my only expectations of the current legislature is to resolve the ed funding issue as best they can in a manner that will allow the State of NH to Move On to the other pressing needs of our citizenry.

Hope > Fear



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midaho (0.00 / 0)
I diaried about the monitor editorial today.  You can find it on the recent diaries list.

I guess you can call it my continuing coverage of equality in NH.

[ Parent ]
did not see it (0.00 / 0)
over there obviously. I guess I was trying to concentrate the discussion. One of the disadvantages to the blog/diary style collaboration is how things tend to get spread out.

Perhaps a way to browse by "Tag" somewhere on the home page would be in order for BH?

Hope > Fear



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[ Parent ]
We don't have enough taged content to make it FP material (0.00 / 0)
But you cna click on the tags at the bottom of the article.

As new people come in who don't knw what's been covered we'll look into browse by tag features.


[ Parent ]
horrible typing there (0.00 / 0)
Sorry.


[ Parent ]
Tags (0.00 / 0)
I'm trying to be good about tags, even if they aren't important to the function of the site yet.

Just go look at the nice collection we're growing around the John Lynch tag.

Likewise, there are currently four gay marriage related diaries under the GLBT tag.

[ Parent ]
The Sununu tag will be of some import down the road. (0.00 / 0)
I want it to be a growing and public oppo-research file.

BTW, the right tag for him is John Sununu, without the middle initial, which we should do when tagging his father.

[ Parent ]
Ready for Civil Unions? | 26 comments
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