Last Tuesday, the House Judiciary Committee voted that a bill that would repeal gay marriage, which is immensely popular in New Hampshire, “Ought To Pass”.
Some of the language of the bill is downright silly:
Children can only be conceived naturally through copulation by heterosexual couples. Because of this biological reality, New Hampshire has a unique, distinct, and compelling interest in promoting stable and committed marital unions between opposite-sex couples so as to increase the likelihood that children will be born to and raised by both of their natural parents. No other domestic relationship presents the same level of state interest.
(Because we all know the purpose of government is to make babies.)
Unfortunately, due to overwhelming Republican majorities in both the NH House and Senate, this has a serious chance of passing. But, as Boston.com reports, the repeal effort is provoking dedicated opposition:
CONCORD, N.H.—A bipartisan group of New Hampshire residents, business owners and civic leaders announced a grass-roots campaign Thursday to stop lawmakers from repealing the state law allowing gays to marry.
Standing Up for New Hampshire Families leaders told reporters that Republican lawmakers should focus on helping businesses create jobs and not on repealing the gay marriage law that has been in effect almost two years. The group counts among its 200 supporters former New Hampshire Supreme Court Chief Justice John Broderick.
Broderick, now dean of the University of New Hampshire Law School, was not present but issued a statement saying “it would be tragic to turn back the clock to the dark days of discrimination, intolerance and false stereotypes.”
The group plans to network with friends and family as well as operate a phone bank to call lawmakers urging them to vote against the bill.
Also on its list of 200 supporters are many libertarian activists, and over a hundred NH church leaders, including, from Keene, Rev. Gordon Ellis, Rev. Mark Jenkins, Rev. Henry F. Knight, Reed Loy, Rabbi Sarah Rubin, and Rev. Judith Smith-Valley.
Rachel Maddow took a bit of time on Wednesday to poke fun at the shenanigans of the New Hampshire branch of the National Organization for Marriage, which is pushing for the repeal:
The typical libertarian stance on this issue– that marriage should not be a state institution, and everyone should be equally entitled to state civil unions– was proposed in another bill, but it’s not getting much support from either Republicans or Democrats, and it suffers from the thorny legal issue that other states would not recognize the private marriages.
Hat tips to Lucy Weber and brianrater at Blue Hampshire, and Denis Goddard.
