Link to article here.
June 4, 2009
By ABBY
GOODNOUGH
BOSTON — The New Hampshire legislature approved revisions to a same-sex
marriage bill on Wednesday, and Gov. John
Lynch promptly signed the legislation, making the state the sixth to let gay
couples wed.
The bill had been through several permutations to satisfy Mr.
Lynch and certain legislators that it would not force religious organizations
that oppose same-sex marriage to participate in ceremonies celebrating it. Some
groups had feared they could be sued for refusing to allow same-sex weddings on
their property.
Mr. Lynch, who previously supported civil unions but not
marriage for same-sex couples, said in a statement that he had heard “compelling
arguments that a separate system is not an equal system.”
“Today,” he said,
“we are standing up for the liberties of same-sex couples by making clear that
they will receive the same rights, responsibilities — and respect — under New
Hampshire law.”
The law will take effect on Jan. 1. As originally cast, the
legislation exempted members of the clergy from having to perform same-sex
weddings. Then Mr. Lynch, a centrist Democrat, said he would veto the bill
unless the legislature added language also exempting religious groups and their
employees from having to participate in such ceremonies.
Mr. Lynch also
ordered that the bill protect members of religious groups from having to provide
same-sex couples with religious counseling, housing designated for married
people and other services relating to “the promotion of marriage.”
But the
House rejected that language last month by a two-vote margin, and legislative
leaders appointed a committee to negotiate a compromise.
The committee last
week recommended changes further emphasizing the rights of religious groups not
to participate. They include a preamble to the bill that states, “Each religious
organization, association, or society has exclusive control over its own
religious doctrine, policy, teachings and beliefs regarding who may marry within
their faith.”
Republicans have called the committee’s work tainted because
the Senate president, Sylvia B. Larsen, a Democrat, replaced one of its
Republican members when that legislator would not sign off on last week’s
compromise. Under legislative rules, the committee’s decision needed to be
unanimous.
As more states have legalized same-sex marriage, opponents have
increasingly lobbied for “conscience protections,” language that exempts
religious organizations from having to participate.
But many of the bill’s
opponents believe the language adopted by New Hampshire and several other states
does not go far enough because it protects only religious groups and their
employees. New Hampshire’s bill does not exempt photographers or florists, for
example, from having to provide services.
But groups that advocate for gay
rights, some of whom poured money into the state in recent months, said the law
was yet another step toward mainstream America accepting same-sex marriage. “As
people get to know the loving and committed couples at the heart of marriage
equality,” said Neil G. Giuliano, president of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance
Against Defamation, “our culture is moving to equality.”
Kevin Smith,
director of the Cornerstone Policy Research, a group opposing the bill, said
lawmakers “rammed this legislation through” in a way that “reeks of backroom
deals and a subversion of the legislative process.”