Equal marriage rights are, for now, at least, here to stay in NH:
New Hampshire lawmakers have rejected a bill that would have made their state the first to repeal a gay marriage law through legislation — a move opposed by the governor.
The Republican-controlled House voted 211-116 on Monday to kill the bill that would have repealed the 2-year-old law and restored a law that allowed civil unions in 2008 and 2009.
Normally, you would think this would settle things once and for all, but you have to remember we are dealing with religious fanatics, so I am sure NH will be debating this, at least at the committee level, for years to come.
Yutsano
Maybe that huge libertarian streak isn’t so bad…
matryoshka
Well, it beats working to solve real problems.
KG
@Yutsano: it has it’s moments.
cathyx
Is that a typo? I am pleasantly surprised if it is not.
Martin
Well, clearly they’ve decided to not distract from the real issue of denying contraceptives to gay couples.
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
From what I can gather, NH wingnuts are a breed of their own, and very few godbotherers to contend with. I guess that’s a good thing, or maybe just a different thing. Anyways, kudos for that state, actually advancing human rights, and legal rights.
Gin & Tonic
The size of that legislature has always bothered me for some reason, so I just did some quick calculations. The NH lower house has one rep for every 3,000 residents. CA, by way of contrast, has one rep for every 300,000 residents.
David Koch
It’s raining men, hallelujah!
It’s raining men, Amen!
MikeJ
The Magna Carta says nothing about gay marriage.
KG
@Gin & Tonic: technically, the US House should have one rep for every 10,000… but there’s some USSC case law that says we can ignore that provision of the Constitution.
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
From the Believe it or Not files;
Wolverines!!
Gin & Tonic
@General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero): They are crazy in a lot of ways there, but this sounds more like a “Live Free or Die” Republican:
From the Union-Leader, so you know it has to be true.
stratplayer
From what I know of the composition of the NH House, it appears a substantial number of Republicans defied the party line. I hold little hope for the long-term survival of moderation in the Republican Party, but it’s nice to know its not completely dead. There are still a few who actually mean it when they talk about liberty.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero):
So Mitt is outing himself as objectively pro-TARP, huh? This sort of loose talk might be enough to goad Ron Paul into going medieval on him, Mike Tyson style. I have 2 words for Mr. Etch-A-Sketch: ear protectors
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
Shithouse rat, fumbling for the exit
stratplayer
@Gin & Tonic:
If New Hampshire, with about 1.3 million residents, went by California’s ratio, there’d be 4-5 representative in the House. How would you like to sit in a room for hour after hour, day after day, arguing with the same 4 annoying people? I’ll pass.
Sir Nose'D
By your logic, Cole, I would be led to believe religious fanatics would still be pushing creationism bills in state after state, despite resounding defeat after resounding defeat in the courts.
Really?
Okay, I stand corrected.
Ozymandias, King of Ants
So expect lots of guns being dropped?
marianne19
The bill failed because of a real grass roots campaign to let the state reps know how people felt on this issue. I called the state house yesterday and it was a madhouse. We had a lot of so-called tea party types get elected in 2010, who then started trying to push through a social agenda. On this issue, people rallied behind their neighbors, almost 2000 NH families that have married since 2009 and I believe we reached enough of the “libertarians” and or moderates who broke ranks. Still, most people expected it to go down after a veto, so this is a nice victory.
Judas Escargot
@General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero):
How soon they forget.
Judas Escargot
And an awesome, nice surprise from my Northern neighbors.
I’m tempted to say that this means SSM is now a dead issue for mainstream politics… but until a few weeks ago, I thought the same thing about contraception.
rikyrah
that’s a good piece of news.
Baud
Good job, NH. I’m impressed because the legislature up there is freaking crazy.
curiousleo
Yay, NH!
The Protect All NC Families Campaign in North Carolina (ie the folks working to veto an anti-same sex marriage state constitutional amendment) is REALLY short on cash. There is a good chance that NC can vote this stupid thing down. But the campaign NEEDS cash to get its message out.
https://secure.actblue.com/page/matchingdonation
Jim
Been watchin those rascals in Concord and observing the attitudes of the locals and I detected virtually no interest in repealing gay marriage among the citizenry. In one breath you’d hear someone let loose with a vile homophobic slur and and the next he’d say “let them get married if they want.” Sometime they’d add, “they might as well be as miserable as the rest of us.” I didn’t think it would pass with a veto proof majority, but I’m surprised that repeal couldn’t muster a majority in the fetid house.
realnrh
The nay-voting Republicans were a mix. Some of them were 10tards from last cycle who wouldn’t stand a chance normally and will be gone this year and who really do want to eliminate government entirely – and wanted to find some vote, *any* vote, that would let them claim with a straight face that they weren’t Republican party-line voters. The rest were longer-term less-nutty Republicans who found it a good opportunity to show off their own ‘moderate’ credentials and stick a thumb in the roundly-disliked Bully O’Brien’s eye.
Another Halocene Human
Joe.My.God posted video of that NOM idiot, Brian Brown, debating a straight advocate for same sex marriage in NH. It really has to be seen to be believed. Brown, the out-of-state agitator funded with out-of-state money immediately launches into stale talking points about how New Hampshire doesn’t want outsiders imposing a radical new definition of marriage. Btw, majority of NH residents support… SSM. The NH guy was clearly not used to TV but easily ripped Brown a new one. I mean, he did it to himself!
Another Halocene Human
@Gin & Tonic:
Aha, now we alight on the real reason NH’s budget is a mess year after year!
/evil laugh
/Masshole who is not now and has never been a resident of NH
/non-New Englanders: the real reasons are: no income tax, Massachusetts is no longer dry/blue-law’ed-up, also selling off some of their liquor store business like morans, and, finally, all the Massholes moving there with all their rugrats. Also stupidity.
Another Halocene Human
@General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero): Hank Paulson? Oh lolololol. Well, I mean he was handing out cash at the discount window for a time, but if you want to think what WS thought of his tenure, consider the fact that he was more or less asked to leave. And Obama was just as thick as thieves with those Chicago-school-GS-thugs as GWB, maybe less on the whole lax oversight no regulations bit, especially with Madoff in the public eye, etc.
Another Halocene Human
Even the Paulies who AREN’T nutty goldbugs marching downtown with “End the Fed” signs hate Hank Paulson. (They hate Timmeh, aka Timothy Geitner, too.)
Bernanke has been cussed out like crazy, but he pulled the fat out of the fire. All the sensible people I know that I’ve discussed BB Dawg with give him credit for that much. (Even the people who cussed him out realized what a horrible position Greenspan left him it. Good on him for pulling a relative win out of a no-win scenario.)
Another Halocene Human
@stratplayer:
Northeastern Republicans : Bible-Belt Republicans :: Northern Baptists : Southern Baptists
And we all know what happened to the Northern Baptists.
Another Halocene Human
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
Given the nature of his pre-political career, that may be a rare Romney of 2012 non-lie.
Treasure it.
may
This won’t be debated after next January, as the crazy, mouth breathing free-staters with a super majority in the general court (legislature) will be out of power. (There are almost no old school New England Republicans left in NH.) NH always swings hard in swing elections, and just as a bunch of crazies got in a year and a half ago, the grown ups will be back in charge next year.
The biggest problem with the NH house and senate is not the huge size of one and tiny size of the other, it is that it is effectively unpaid. That means it is a bunch of rich retired people looking out for themselves. The free-staters came to NH and took advantage of that. Unfortunately, many people didn’t realize what they would do until they had the power to do it. And they are seriously evil.