Gay Marriage Bill Stalls In New Hampshire

The New Hampshire House of Representatives, by a 188-186 vote, put the brakes on gay marriage, voting down legislation that would have permitted gay couples to marry while protecting the religious liberties of clergy.

The state’s governor, threatening a veto if the gay marriage legislation did not contain such protections, urged lawmakers to add an amendment to the legislation. The state’s Senate approved of the language, but the House rejected it.

The House, however, voted 207-168 to ask the Senate to negotiate a compromise.

At this point, lawmakers will meet to hash out some of the differences in the bill. A vote on the “compromise” bill could come as early as June 3.

“I think the headline is the House pushes the pause button, which is something very different than a reverse button,” openly gay Episcopal bishop Gene Robinson told New Hampshire television station WMUR.

Supporters of gay marriage argued the vote, while a setback, is not the end of the road for gay marriage in New Hampshire. They point to a strong 173-202 vote that rejected a measure that would kill the gay marriage bill.

Rather, New Hampshire lawmakers, particularly state Rep. Steve Vaillancourt, a gay Republican from Manchester, said Democrat Gov. John Lynch was bullying lawmakers into passing a new bill. Prior to Wednesday’s vote, the New Hampshire Legislature had passed a bill legalizing gay marriage. See

Gay Marriage Bill Stalls In New Hampshire

Philadelphia Bulletin

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Gay advocacy groups press Obama

Gay advocacy groups, disenchanted by President Obama’s inaction so far on campaign promises on their issues, are launching a campaign to get his administration to take a stand on the federal anti-gay marriage law.

The first federal lawsuit against a key section of the Defense Of Marriage Act was filed on last month by Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders on behalf of eight same-sex married couples and three surviving spouses from Massachusetts. Obama’s Department of Justice until the week of June 22 to respond.

During his campaign, Obama promised to seek a repeal of the act, which allows states to not recognize gay marriages from other states. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs reiterated the president’s position last month. He opposes gay marriage, but does support civil unions and equal treatment for gays. In recent weeks, New Hampshire and Vermont have moved to join Massachusetts in legalizing gay marriage.

In the grassroots effort, organizers are asking participants to print out a “flip flop card” with the statement, “President Obama, please don’t flip flop on DOMA!” and mail it to the White House.

“President Obama, the defense of this discriminatory and archaic law will be tantamount to nothing short of a flip flop from your previously stated intentions. We’re asking you Mr. President, to take a principled stand for equality under the law and be the bold leader that we voted into office,” Paul Sousa, who leads the Boston-based Equal Rep, said in a statement.

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Mass. couples cheer gay marriage, 5 years later

BOSTON – Every year, the couples who led the fight for gay marriage in Massachusetts get together privately to celebrate both their own weddings and the marriages of thousands more couples who followed them.

But this year, the celebration feels a little bit sweeter for the six couples who will gather Sunday to mark the fifth anniversary of Massachusetts becoming the first state to legalize same-sex marriage. This year, they will also be celebrating the legalization of gay marriage in four other states.

“We’ve been very happy that it’s started to be accepted in other places,” said Maureen Brodoff, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit that led to a Supreme Judicial Court decision legalizing gay marriage.

“It’s important to us that same-sex relationships get recognition outside of our home state, and I think that that is happening slowly as people look to the Massachusetts example and see that, you know, the sky didn’t fall, that it’s strengthened families, that it’s brought joy to a lot of families,” Brodoff said. See Mass. couples cheer gay marriage, 5 years later Chicago Tribune * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual

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CNN Poll: Generational gap on gay marriage

A new national poll suggests that a majority of Americans oppose legalizing same sex marriages — but there’s a vast generational divide on the issue.

Fifty-four percent of people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released Monday say that marriages between gay or lesbian couples should not be recognized as valid, with 44 percent suggests they should be considered legal.
Among those 18 to 34 years old, 58 percent said same-sex marriages should be legal. That number drops to 42 percent among respondents 35 to 49 years old, and to 41 percent for those 50 to 64 years of age. The poll indicates that only 24 percent of Americans 65 and older support recognizing same-sex marriages as valid.

While a majority of those polled oppose legalizing gay marriage, 6 out of 10 feel that states that do not recognize gay marriages allow civil unions. When it comes to supporting civil unions, the poll indicates a similar generational shift.

Three states, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Iowa, currently allow same-sex marriages. A law passed by Vermont law makers that makes gay and lesbian marriages legal takes effect in the state later this year. Lawmakers in Maine and New Hampshire are close to passing a similar bill.

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New Hampshire senate committee rejects gay marriage

(Concord, N.H.) The state Senate’s Judiciary Committee has recommended that the Legislature reject legalizing gay marriage in New Hampshire.

The committee voted 3-2 Thursday against a bill that passed the House last month. Committee Chairwoman Deborah Reynolds, a Democrat, said she doesn’t think New Hampshire is ready for gay marriage. Republicans …

The Wingnut explains why conservatives fear gay marriage

The Wingnut explains why conservatives fear gay marriage

From his undisclosed location, our undercover conservative columnist answers one of your most pressing questions: Do right-wingers really think that legalizing gay marriage will destroy our social fabric?

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Gingrich: Iowa ruling ‘judicial arrogance’

(Athens, Georgia) Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich says that a recent Iowa Supreme Court ruling legalizing gay marriage is “outrageously wrong.”

Gingrich spoke Tuesday at the University of Georgia’s law school, where he’s been teaching a series on the judicial system.

Gingrich says that he was astonished by last Friday’s decision in …

Equality Utah uses the LDS own words in a new campaign for Gay Rights

The day after Proposition 8, a Mormon supported ballot measure that outlawed same-sex marriage, passed in California, the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints released a formal statement saying, “the church does not object to rights for same-sex couples regarding hospitalization and medical care, fair housing and employment rights, or probate rights.”

Last week however, a Utah bill that would have allowed two people who live together and who are mutually dependent and named in a will or trust to a wrongful death court action if a tragedy occurred, was defeated in a state senate committee after opponents of the bill argued that offering any legal recognition to same-sex couples, including the right to sue when a breadwinner suffers a wrongful death, could lead to a court decision legalizing gay marriage.

This week in an effort to sway voters in that state and prevent other of Equality Utah’s legislative initiative’s remaining bills from going down in flames, Equality Utah has come out swinging with a major multimedia ad blitz that turn the tables and proclaims…

“The Church does not object to rights for same-sex couples …”

In a press statement Equality Utah said…

Several polls have indicated that the majority of Utahns support the reasonable and basic protections provided for in the legislation of the Common Ground
Initiative.

Yet lawmakers rebuffed one of the Common Ground Initiative bills last week, recalling tired arguments that the proposals are somehow an attack on traditional marriage.

Far from pessimistic about the ability of Utah legislators see passed the tired arguments that surfaced during last week’s hearing, Equality Utah has launched a media campaign to help raise awareness of the reasonableness and broad public support of the basic ideals of the Common Ground Initiative.

“We’ve modeled our legislative proposals directly from the statements of the LDS Church,” said Mike Thompson, Equality Utah’s Executive Director. “We’re talking about basic rights that have broad public support and have nothing to do with marriage. We hope this media campaign will help Utahns see passed the fear-based arguments used against this legislation.”

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Vermont closer to legalizing gay marriage

Nine years after becoming the first state to permit civil unions, Vermont moved a step toward legalizing gay marriage Friday.

A bill that would allow same-sex unions was introduced in the Legislature, causing a crowd of about several hundred supporters to gather at the Statehouse in celebration.

“This really is a great day and a part of moving forward to a time when all Vermont couples will be treated equally under our laws,” said a sponsor, Rep. Mark Larson.

A similar bill is expected to be introduced later in the state Senate.

The House legislation has 59 sponsors, none of them Republican, though some GOP lawmakers have said they’ll vote for the bill, Larson said.

“I know that there’s broad support in the House,” he said.

Despite the enthusiasm, it’s unclear if the measure will see any action this session, with lawmakers preoccupied with the state’s fiscal crisis that has led to voluntary pay cuts, court closings and Gov. Jim Douglas’s proposal to lay off more than 600 state workers.

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Washington Students Protest Anti-Gay-Marriage Column

Hundreds of University of Washington students gathered on Saturday to protest an anti-gay-marriage column published in the school’s student newspaper on November 25, the Daily reports. The opinion piece, titled, “Gay marriage? Lets stop and think about this,” described homosexuality as “more of an emotional condition” and argued that legalizing gay marriage would lead to a slippery slope of legal polygamy, incest, and bestiality. An illustration featuring a man standing next to a sheep accompanied the piece.

Several student groups, such as the graduate student government, have called for an apology and even for the newspaper’s editorial board’s resignation.

See Washington Students Protest Anti-Gay-Marriage Column
U.S. News & World Report