A Lost Committee

State commission on civil unions has turned into a circus.

May 05. 2005 8:00AM

Given the makeup of the commission created to determine how New Hampshire's laws would be affected by the approval of same-sex civil unions, it is not surprising the panel wound up lost in an X-rated funhouse. The committee contains so many members appointed for their strong opposition to same-sex unions that problems were inevitable.

At one hearing, graphic testimony by opponents of state sanction for any kind of same-sex relationship included the sort of language that got singer Bono and shock-jock Howard Stern in trouble with the Federal Communications Commission. The gutter talk went unchallenged by the commission's chairman, Rep. Tony Soltani of Epsom.

Soltani drew even more attention to the hapless group - and to his inappropriateness as its chair - by refusing to recognize Ray Buckley, an openly gay former state representative, as Gov. John Lynch's appointee to the commission. Instead, Soltani insisted that former governor Craig Benson's appointee, Bryan Gould, remain on the job. Soltani ignored an opinion from the attorney general's office that the appointee serves at the pleasure of the current governor, not the former one.

Gould wisely resigned, but Soltani's antics should lead House Speaker Doug Scamman to consider replacing him as chairman. The committee has no time left for grandstanding.

The commission was not created to issue any recommendations whatsoever. Its opinion on the morality of gay marriage is irrelevant. Its job is fact-finding - facts of law, not life. It is charged with issuing a report on the legal ramifications of a change in the status of same-sex unions by December.

Soltani waited roughly nine months before calling the first meeting and then arrived late to its two subsequent meetings. Now the commission plans to hold a series of four public hearings - in Littleton, Lancaster, Nashua and Portsmouth. Those will almost certainly prove to be a waste of time.

The people the commission needs to hear from - town clerks, family law practitioners, insurance industry executives and others affected by a change in the law -can easily and more effectively submit their concerns another way. And unless Soltani limits testimony to the law itself, gay union opponents in the audience and on the commission will use the hearings to flaunt their prejudices.

The commission's time would be far better spent doing the job it was created to carry out. Its task is serious.

Society is struggling to do what it must: afford equal treatment to all citizens, straight, gay or otherwise. The issue is emotional, visceral and entangled in religion and tradition.

Progress will come slowly. But New Hampshire is not doing itself proud by putting up with a commission that has become an embarrassment, or by lagging behind its New England neighbors in adapting to an inevitable change.

New Hampshire took great strides in recognizing equal rights when it passed laws allowing homosexuals to adopt children and to serve as foster parents. The state also outlawed discrimination on the basis of sexual preference.

Yet it remains alone among New England states in refusing to grant domestic partnership benefits to its employees, save for those in the university system. That, too, will change, but progress is slowed and the state's image tarnished when zealots are permitted to turn official forums into sideshows.

The commission charged with studying the legal effects of same-sex unions should either buckle down or be disbanded.

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