New Hampshire Verges on Marriage Equality
The New Hampshire House this afternoon passed a bill to bring marriage equality to that state. According to the brief report I heard on NPR news, the Senate had earlier easily passed the legislation.
The Governor of New Hampshire, John Lynch, has not indicated whether he will sign, veto, or ignore the bill. In a press release from 29 April 2009 ("Gov. Lynch Statement Regarding Passage of Same-Sex Marriage Legislation"), in which he tried to finesse the issue by stating his belief that New Hampshire's civil unions, created two years ago, took care of the equality question for same-sex couples. Of course, courts around the nation have been finding that not to be true, that separate civil unions have not been treated as equal to marriage–that "separate but equal" is still not a workable concept when it comes to civil equality.
If he chooses to veto the bill I will expect to hear right-wing outcries about a single individual legislating from the governor's desk and defying the democratic will of the elected officials of the people of New Hampshire. I would also expect to hear economic frustration about how Vermont and Massachusetts and Connecticut are getting all that extra marriage money pumped into their economies, but New Hampshire isn't.
I really think Governor Lynch has smarter things to do than veto this legislation. Vetoing similar legislation didn't make neighboring Governor Douglas look in charge of things in his state when the Vermont legislature rushed to override that veto.
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on Thursday, 30 April 2009 at 01.25
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Whatever Lynch does, I think Republicans would be wise to say
as little as possible. Their stock isn't exactly high in New England
these days.
I don't know anything about NH state politics, but I suspect Lynch
would be wise to go ahead and sign the bill. I say that because,
first, it's the fair thing to do; second, he can point to the
legislature passing it as evidence it's the will of the people; and
third, if the issue winds up in courts, it will cost taxpayers plenty,
in addition to the lost revenues you mentioned.
on Thursday, 30 April 2009 at 10.49
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Court costs are one thing, but the current economic imperative is all the money that would be won or lost to florists, wedding planners, organists, dress makers, invitation printers, bakers, manufacturers of those odd little pastel mints, etc.