New Hampshire Votes 188-186 Against Gay Marriage
New Hampshire, a state in which 55% of its electorate favors gay marriage, and 39% of its electorate opposes gay marriage, just defeated its gay marriage bill after passing it two weeks ago. “Huh?” you say? Right.
On May 6, the House and Senate completed voting on the gay marriage bill. Many had expected it to be sent to the Governor that same day, just as Vermont did. But the bill never reached the Governor. Instead, two weeks after the bill was passed, the last step before gay marriage would be legal in New Hampshire, the bill hung out in the 400-member State Legislature. Even the local newspaper reported it had been sent to the Governor’s office. Finally, on May 14, Governor John Lynch announced he would sign the bill if the Legislature included specific language he had drafted, to add further protections for religious institutions. Even gay rights groups did not object, and we all breathed a sigh of relief.
Today, by a 14-10 vote, the New Hampshire Senate approved the changes and the bill went to the House. Most people went out for coffee. Three approvals by the Senate, two by the House, a report that the Legislature would easily pass it, a promise by the Governor that he would sign the bill, let’s have a latte. Well guess what? We just lost the House. By two damn votes: 188-186.
The time for action is NOW. Enough of this shit. It’s time for everyone to pick up the damn phone and start calling people in New Hampshire. Know someone who lives there? Call them. Know someone who goes to college there? Call them. Call the Governor’s office yourself. Call the Speaker of the House yourself. Call or write the local newspaper, contact the local TV station, get online and make some noise. DO SOMETHING. NOW.
1. New Hampshire Freedom To Marry has a simple form for residents of New Hampshire. Make sure you or anyone you know who has a New Hampshire address fills it out.
2. Look at this list of New Hampshire colleges and Universities. Know anyone who might be on it? Doesn’t your neighbor have a son at Darthmouth? Time for them to repay that cup of sugar they never returned.
3. Call Governor John Lynch. Yes, he has already said he will sign the bill. He’s under a lot of pressure. He could easily change his mind. Call him. (The people in his office are very nice.) Email Governor Lynch here. Call him at (603)271-2121. Fax him at (603)271-7680.
4. Get onto Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, any of your social networks and ask your contacts to support you! Ask them who they know who lives in New Hampshire. It’s important that we get the New Hampshire voters to contact their legislators and let them know they want this bill to pass. Here’s a link to help them find their representative’s number or email.
5. Ask all your friends to email the New Hampshire State Legislature: house_communications@leg.state.nh.us
6. Call the Office of the Speaker of the House, Terie Norelli: (603) 271-3661. Here is their website.
Any other ideas? Email me! Or list them in the comments below.
PLEASE do this now. And please email all your friends with this information. Or, ask them to subscribe to this blog.
(image: jackealexander)
Related posts:
- Governor Lynch, Did You Let New Hampshire’s Gay Marriage Bill Slide Into Law?
- Maggie Gallagher Admits NOM Infiltrated New Hampshire
- BREAKING NEWS: New Hampshire Governor Will Sign Gay Marriage Bill
- New Hampshire Gay Marriage Bill: Signed, Sealed, Delivered?
- New Hampshire Anxiously Awaits Gay Marriage Decision
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2 votes? really?
Yes. One of them was a gay Republican. Seriously.
I'm impressed at the way you completely dodged why it lost this time,
Gov. Lynch insisted that the law not create a club that thugs could use to go after churches that disagreed with them on SSM. The thugs weren't willing to give up their club, and so opposed the bill.
You want to attack someone, attack the thugs who think the main point of SSM is to give them another excuse to attack Christian churches.
Here are a few facts, gregq.
First, when I wrote this, we didn't know who voted in what way. There were no facts, other than it was a very close vote, and there were less votes than the previous time. If you read the post carefully, you'll notice I don't blame anyone. In fact, if you read it very carefully, you can sense my frustration that we got complacent. I think that's pretty obvious. So, chill out there, pal.
Second, if you have been following, NO ONE in the gay community, at least no organization, was opposed to Governor Lynch's language. Had you read my previous dozen or so articles on New Hampshire, you'd have known that. What you might NOT know is that the deciding vote came from a gay Republican, who felt the Governor's language was over-reaching. Yes, a gay Republican.
Who the heck told you there's a club of gay thugs in New Hampshire, anyway? What club do they belong to?
Trust me, the last thing (many in) the gay community wants is anything to do with the Church. We're very happy to take our weddings elsewhere, thank you very much.
Oh, and one last point: SSM is a nasty, derogatory term the Right likes to use because it sounds like S&M, just like they like to say "Democrat" because it rhymes with "rat". Please don't use it again here.
Thanks.
This is not about civil rights!
The Democrats are constantly funded by outside sources whether it be for gay marriage, income taxes, stealing private property to give to corporations, or what have you. TONS OF MONEY. The Democrats are in fact, the party of the rich. And they don't care who they hurt.
Fact is, there were NO robo-calls. We don't even know who NOM is. We gays in NH just don't want more affirmative action programs, which is what gay marriage is. We are like that… fiscally conservative and don't look to government for our 'rights'.
Take your outside dirty money and get out of NH please… Stop using your sexual preference to make you a victim class to extort more money from the government. It cheapens all of us.
NHampshire,
Obviously we disagree. And you're wrong.
NOM is the National Organization for Marriage. There WERE robo-calls, which I wrote about here: http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/robo-calling...
Maggie Gallagher, NOM's president, admitted, in The National Review, that they have been working in NH.
I would encourage you to do a bit more research before you write about topics you don't have enough facts on. It doesn't help whatever point you are attempting to make.
The rest of your comments don't deserve a response.
Also, you posted the same comment on two different articles here. I consider that spam. Please don't do that again.
Last point first: SSM = Same Sex Marriage. If there's a better term for it, i haven't heard it. No, I'm not going to write it out every time.
Besides, what's wrong with S&M? What, YOUR differences from the norm are ok, but everyone else's are "wrong"?
2: You're saying the New Hampshire House doesn't report its votes? Really?
3: Well, some supporters became opponents, apparently because of Gov. Lynch's language. Either that, or they were just pretending to support it the first time. you really want to try to make the case for the second claim?
4: The first thing a lot of members of the gay community want to do is bash teh Church at every possible opportunity. See the anti-Prop 8 ads before teh election, and the backlash after it. It was and is explicitly anti-religious.
If you honestly believe that no one was looking at SSM as an excuse for bringing lawsuits against teh Catholic Church, and other "conservative" churches, then you live in a delusional fantasy land that has no connection to reality, and no awareness of history.
What was it that "Gay Republican" was quoted as saying: I oppose Gov. Lynch's language because it would allow for discrimination?
Translation: I oppose his language because it would prevent me, and those like me, from using the power of the State to bash those who disagree with us.
Intolerance, bigotry, hatred: the routine behavior of the pro-SSM crowd.
"Attack christian churches"? uhmm…what an idiot!
Well, as we all know, churches need to clean up their own houses before crying and whining about Frank and Larry or Susie and Nancy wanting equal protection under the law. Besides, many religious folks are so busy upholding standards for the rest of us that they forget to uphold those same standards for themselves. People like GregQ are just old, sad, and weak, and eventually will blow away like yesterday's wind, inconsequential and forgotten. Can't wait!
The churches are right, Jesus took the marriage contract and made it a Sacrament.
SSM is wrong in trying to make the marriage contract into the plumbing of gay sex.
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