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The Fight For Marriage Equality Continues This Wednesday At The State House

by: Rep. Jim Splaine

Mon Feb 15, 2010 at 22:45:34 PM EST
(Bumped. - promoted by Dean Barker)

It wasn't easy, but New Hampshire became the most recent state to adopt marriage equality last Spring.  There are just five states -- New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, and Iowa -- where our gay and lesbian citizens have the right to be married, just like everyone else.  At one point there were seven, but as disgusting as it is once the right was extended, discrimination was reestablished in California and Maine.

House Bill 436 was approved last year in large part to the advocacy and work of those reading www.BlueHampshire.com, who went out of their way to contact Legislators on each of the crucial votes.  All those votes were close, and E-Mails and telephone calls had an impact.  

We have won to this point by remaining positive.  We have won by telling our stories and showing our faces.  We have won by asking people the simple question:  Just why should we discriminate?  

Some people would like to revisit discrimination in New Hampshire.  Much time has been spent in recent months in the effort to turn back the clock here to the discrimination of yesteryear.  But The New Hampshire Way is not to take rights away from our neighbors and friends, and I expect that any such effort will fail -- either now in Concord, or at the March Town Meetings, or next November, or next January.  But our own efforts to defend our rights have to continue.  

Last month, the House Judiciary Committee held a public hearing on two bills, which are up for vote by the full House on Wednesday.   House Bill 1590, "AN ACT repealing same sex marriage," and CACR 28 (a Constitutional Amendment) "Providing that the state shall only recognize the union of one man and one woman as marriage," will be voted on, likely in the late morning or early afternoon.  The Judiciary Committee has recommended on identical 12-8 votes on both bills that they be killed dead.
Rep. Jim Splaine :: The Fight For Marriage Equality Continues This Wednesday At The State House
The votes on Wednesday will again be close.  Our opponents want to beat us.  I think we'll win, and we have done many things during the past three months to maintain our victory.  But we need the help of www.BlueHampshire.com readers.

PLEASE contact your Legislators -- and re-contact those who you talked with last Spring.  Thank them for voting to provide equality last year, and ask that they remain firm this Wednesday.  

Since January 1, 2010, at 12:01 AM when HB 436 became law, about 300 of our fellow neighbors have been able to be married.  They have joined together to share their caring and love for one another.  That's something for all of us to celebrate.  Let's continue to show that New Hampshire is a wonderful place to call "home" for all of us.  
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The Fight For Marriage Equality Continues This Wednesday At The State House | 10 comments
Good luck! (0.00 / 0)
I busied myself tonite sending out emails to our local reps here in Hudson.  However, I suspect the split here is going to be pretty much the same as it was last year. Although the reps I've talked to personally seem to be less "anti" than they were last time.
Being against something is a gut reaction. It's the default (0.00 / 0)
because it's the safe position.  Being for something implies the risk that a) it will bite; b) you won't get it; or c) you won't like it, if you get it.  
"None of my business" Republicans really had a more sensible attitude.
[ Parent ]
Just a suggestion.... (0.00 / 0)
keep Nancy Elliot off the floor of the House; or maybe better, let her rant and show the world once again what bigotry and hate look like.  Perhaps her antics and her lying will change some minds our way.
She wrote the (4.00 / 1)
minority blurb for HB1590. It is usual that the rep who writes the blurb defends the position outlined in the blurb during a floor fight.
[ Parent ]
The Telegraph (0.00 / 0)
It looks like one of the Aldermen, diane Shaheen, in Nashua is going after Elliott.  There is a front page article covering the story in today's paper.

http://www.nashuatelegraph.com...

I contacted my reps (0.00 / 0)
2 Dems and 2 Republicans.
Of the 4, only one voted for marriage equality. This time the other one is planning to vote against both HB1590 and CACR28.

Of the Republicans - one thinks she may vote against 1590, but in favor of CACR28, because she thinks the people should decide. That earned her a response on issues that never got a popular vote. I don't have high expectations.

The other Republican is Gene Chandler. I didn't hear from him, and I fully expect him to vote as odiously as possible.  

Question (0.00 / 0)
The Union Leader ( a very reliable source...) has said that town across the state such as Windham are trying to have a refined definition of what Marriage is.

http://www.unionleader.com/art...  

question (0.00 / 0)
The question that I had sorry was can towns do this and could this cause a damper with the issue being raised in Concord?
[ Parent ]
Those warrant (4.00 / 1)
articles are non-binding.

It's a Republican Party stunt to make marriage equality a wedge issue in the November elections.

Many Republican majority towns, such as Rindge, declined to put it on the ballot.

[ Parent ]
The other part of that plan (0.00 / 0)
was to move, prior to the House vote on CACR 28, that it be Special Ordered to March 17th, after most towns had their Town Meeting. Basically, this was just another attempt to make this into a referendum.   The House membership declined to do so, by a vote of 191-148.  

In the House, Special Order is usually used in one of two ways:  First, to extend the courtesy to an individual member who has been closely associated with a bill the courtesy of putting off the vote until the next Session Day if the member is unable to be present when the vote is originally scheduled, and second, when special guests are present in the gallery, as when a bridge is named for a fallen soldier, Special Order is used to bring a bill to the front of the calendar so the guests can be present for the vote.

And to be fair, I do not think all Rs are associated with the plan.  After all, as Rep. Splaine noted elsewhere, about 40 Rs voted against the repeal bill.

[ Parent ]
The Fight For Marriage Equality Continues This Wednesday At The State House | 10 comments
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