New Hampshire Considers Rolling Back Gay Marriage

[Podkayne]

So what happens to the people already married?

[gyeonghwa]

Probably the same thing that happened in California.

What really takes the cake in this bill is that it is more obviously about discrimination. The not only would it eliminate marriage equality, but the bill also says it will provide sexuality based discrimination in the workforce.

[Podkayne]

Probably the same thing that happened in California.

What really takes the cake in this bill is that it is more obviously about discrimination. The not only would it eliminate marriage equality, but the bill also says it will provide sexuality based discrimination in the workforce.

Sorry I don't know, but what happened in California?

[Smurfette Principle]

Probably the same thing that happened in California.

What really takes the cake in this bill is that it is more obviously about discrimination. The not only would it eliminate marriage equality, but the bill also says it will provide sexuality based discrimination in the workforce.

Sorry I don't know, but what happened in California?

Uh, Proposition 8?

[Podkayne]

Probably the same thing that happened in California.

What really takes the cake in this bill is that it is more obviously about discrimination. The not only would it eliminate marriage equality, but the bill also says it will provide sexuality based discrimination in the workforce.

Sorry I don't know, but what happened in California?

Uh, Proposition 8?

Ok, I know about proposition 8, but what actually happened to same sex couples who had already been married?

[Eniliad]

Their marriages were still recognized, if I recall correctly, but future same-sex couples looking to wed were subsequently denied the right to marry, a right they enjoyed previously.

[gyeonghwa]

Eniliad is right. The marriages that happened briefly were still recognized but all future marriages would not be. Instead, marriages between LGBT folks were subjected to only civil unions which, as stated by Prop 8 (even though they denied it), were inferior to marriages. IIRC, Romney made a similar threat to recognize current marriages but disallowed future ones.

[Damen]

Shall we have a bit more news?

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/28/us/gay-marriage-law-in-new-hampshire-may-be-revoked.html

As same-sex marriage supporters celebrate victories in Washington and Maryland this month, they are keeping a wary eye on New Hampshire, where lawmakers may soon vote to repeal the state’s two-year-old law allowing gay couples to wed.

A repeal bill appears to have a good chance of passing in the State House and Senate, which are both controlled by Republicans. The bigger question is whether they can muster enough votes to overcome a promised veto from Gov. John Lynch, a Democrat.

Based on party lines, House and Senate Republicans both have veto-proof majorities. But this is an issue where party allegiance gets muddy.

In a state whose “Live Free or Die” motto figures into many a policy decision, even many opponents of same-sex marriage wish the issue would just disappear. Republican lawmakers with libertarian leanings, a sizable group, seem especially unhappy to be facing a repeal vote, as well as those who maintain that cutting spending should be the legislature’s sole concern. Both groups appear worried about a backlash from their constituents.

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In a recent poll by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, 59 percent of respondents were either strongly or somewhat opposed to repealing the law, while 32 percent said they supported repeal.

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Mr. Bates dismissed the University of New Hampshire poll findings, saying, “It’s just not credible to suggest the people of New Hampshire are the aberration of the nation.”

A New York Times/CBS News poll conducted this month found that 40 percent of respondents supported same-sex marriage, while 23 percent supported civil unions for gay couples and 31 percent said there should be no legal recognition of a gay couple’s relationship.

When New Hampshire became the sixth state to approve same-sex marriage, in 2009 — following California, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts and Vermont — it was not an easy feat. The law passed with close votes in both chambers, which were then under Democratic control, and with last-minute support from Governor Lynch, who had preferred civil unions.

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Mr. Bates said that if the repeal bill failed this year, he would not give up. Governor Lynch is leaving office at year’s end, and both Republicans who have entered the race to succeed him support repeal.

But Representative Seth Cohn, a libertarian Republican who opposes the repeal, said he thought it would in fact harm the Republicans’ chance of staying in power after 2012, whether or not it succeeds.

“They want this as an election issue,” he said of the Democrats. “I think it’s going to backlash against the Republicans who, in the face of the polls, are choosing not to believe the average person is O.K. with this situation.”

[N. De Plume]

The guy isn’t paying attention if he thinks support for gay marriage makes his state an “aberration.”