State ban on gay marriage rejected

By Kevin Landrigan

Nashua Telegraph

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

CONCORD -- The drive to enshrine a ban on gay marriage and civil unions in the state constitution ended in a rout Tuesday.

The House of Representatives voted 207-125 to kill an amendment proposed by a commission that studied the issue for nearly a year.

Kingston Republican Rep. David Welch, a social conservative who opposed the amendment, was just the kind of vote the New Hampshire Freedom to Marry Coalition needed to turn this battle into a mismatch.

"I think it makes no sense to use this document to discriminate against a minority of our citizens," Welch said.

The amendment would have specified that a marriage between one woman and one man was the only legal union recognized in the state. State law does not permit gays and lesbians to marry in New Hampshire, and the state does not recognize marriages and civil unions performed in other states.

But amendment supporters warned judges could follow the lead of the Supreme Judicial Court in Massachusetts, which ruled that gay marriage was consistent with that states constitution.

Nashua Republican Rep. Michael Balboni, the sponsor of the measure, tried to convince his colleagues they had a duty to submit this volatile matter to voters.

A constitutional amendment requires a 60 percent majority in the House and the Senate to go before voters in the November general election. Voter support of 67 percent is required to amend the constitution.

"I hope we can all agree that this is such an important issue that the people we represent should be allowed to vote on this constitutional amendment", Balboni said. "This state and this nation were founded by people who had no voice in their government."

Nashua Democratic Rep. David Smith, who supported passing the amendment so it could go on the ballot, denied that he had a bias against gays and lesbians.

"It is not about discrimination," Smith said. "I feel it is very important it goes to people so they can be allowed to speak."

Former Gov. Craig Benson, a Republican, convinced the Legislature in 2003 to include a gay marriage ban more expressly in state law and create a commission to study civil unions or other recognition of gay couples.

Hundreds of opponents turned out against the amendment during public hearings last summer in Nashua, Portsmouth and Littleton.

When Balboni's amendment got to a House committee, opponents jammed into Representatives Hall and outnumbered supporters by a 4-1 margin.

"We knew that there was going to be a majority of representatives opposed to this," said Mo Baxley, executive director of the Freedom to Marry Coalition. "There was a very small but very well-financed interest group that wanted to put this before the state of New Hampshire and the peoples' House said no."

The Cornerstone Policy Research Group had thousands of letters supporting the amendment sent to lawmakers.

"Marriage is under fire! We are on the slippery slope toward court ordered redefinition of marriage. There are couples who already live in New Hampshire who are part of the Freedom to Marry organization who very much desire to redefine the oldest institution known to man," Cornerstone executive Karen Testerman said in a recent message to lawmakers.

Gov. John Lynch considered the amendment unnecessary and divisive, according to spokeswoman Pamela Walsh.

Democrats feared the amendment's passage would have driven a strong turnout of socially conservative voters in the fall, which could have hurt Lynch and House Democratic Leader Jim Craig of Manchester, who is one of four Democrats seeking to challenge U.S. Rep. Jeb Bradley.

Hopkinton Republican Richard "Stretch" Kennedy offered some laughs and some tears in opposing the amendment.

"We have a state next to us that has civil unions. I dont know what the hell they are. I've been married for more than 30 years and there's been precious little civil about that," Kennedy said.

Baxley said her coalition in the short term will continue to work on public awareness about homosexuality, and not pursue an immediate legislative agenda such as legalizing civil unions. We need to get to the VFW halls and the social clubs, get people to meet us and understand the issue, Baxley said.

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