New Hampshire: House

Here's the thing.

The civil right of marriage equality isn't about the NH House, or the NH Senate, or Governor Lynch.

Ten years from now almost no one will know or care to know about the actors who made this freedom possible in the Live Free or Die state. And that's a beautiful thing, in my opinion.

So I'm asking as earnestly as I can tonight, for you, Public Servant, to stop for a moment and consider what you have done about marriage equality so far and what you need to do to make it a reality.  I'm asking you to put aside thinking about your next election, or your quid pro quo.

Anything worth fighting for is worth keeping fighting for until you win.

A lot of people worked long and hard to get to this point, and to almost win final approval of our cause today.  So, let's not lose it because of lack of patience, or due to frustration.  We can do this.

Criticizing the Governor, or pointing fingers to a few House members, does no good.  Finding a way to get more House Reps to vote FOR us in two weeks will.  

What has to happen is the Governor's requested language to protect freedom and independence of religion has to pass into statute, and that means House Bill 73 has to pass.

Guest Post by former State Senator George Lovejoy...

New Hampshire Senators sent to Washington have long been respected for their traditional common sense.  It is a long cherished value of the Granite State and on many issues New Hampshire Senators have taken the lead in getting colleagues from both parties to apply this ideal on very critical issues of importance to most Americans.

Such an issue is Congressional motivation to pass Waxman-Markey Climate Change ‘Cap and Trade’ Bill, a proposal now being discussed by the US House, as well as most Americans.  The need for Senator Jeanne Shaheen to step up to take the lead in defeating this consumer costly strategy could not be greater!  This proposal sounds good in the beltway but fails the people miserably as it will increase energy costs to consumers, cost jobs, while doling out free permits to selected industries (see last week’s Wall Street Journal article “Waxman-Markey Bill: It’s Giveaway Time for Emissions Permits”).

Our friends at Cornerstone Policy Research write:

Late yesterday, Governor Lynch announced that he will SIGN the same-sex marriage bill if the House and Senate agree to make some changes, despite having told the New Hampshire public time and time again, that he opposes gay marriage.

Governor Lynch has proposed a "cover" religious exemption amendment - much like the same smokescreen amendment the Senate added.  This new language adds protections for religious organizations that are ALREADY covered under the First Amendment - but still does NOTHING to protect independent business owners and persons of faith, who are Justices of the Peace, who will now be forced to provide their services for gay 'marriage' ceremonies or risk being fined up to $50,000 by the Human Rights Commission!

Now, the legislature is going to add yet another amendment to another bill (the third one) in an attempt to "fix" what was a very poorly written bill to begin with.