The Gaytheist Agenda

On Wednesday New Hampshire became the sixth state to legalize same-sex marriage!

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New Hampshire’s Democratic-controlled House of Representatives endorsed gay marriage in a 198-176 vote, hours after the state Senate approved the legislation 14-10 along party lines, making the state the fourth this year to back gay marriage in the United States.

Governor John Lynch, a Democrat, signed the bill, which goes into effect on January 1.

“Today, 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,” Lynch said in a statement.

The law also recognizes out-of-state gay marriages and civil unions, which are legal in just a handful of U.S. states including New Hampshire. Same-sex couples who have civil unions in New Hampshire will automatically be married January 1, 2011.

Last month, the New Hampshire House rejected a similar bill. But Senate and House members met last week to approve new language giving clergy and religious institutions opposed to gay marriage greater protections, including the legal right to decline to marry same-sex couples.

Not that they didn’t already have that, but some people think they’re so special that they need to have all these extra provisions and protections for their “right” to discriminate against others.

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Gay and lesbian weddings have boosted the Massachusetts economy by about $111 million, according to a study by the Williams Institute of the University of California.

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With the vote in New Hampshire, five out of six New England states now have passed legislation authorizing gay marriage, making Rhode Island with its large Roman Catholic population the region’s only hold-out.

 
Meanwhile, Rhode Island doesn’t allow marriage, but there’s a proposed law that will give same-sex partners funeral rights. How positively romantic.

PROVIDENCE, R.I., June 3 (UPI) — The Rhode Island state Senate has passed legislation allowing “domestic partners” the right to claim each others bodies and arrange funerals.

The bill would apply to both homosexual and heterosexual couples, defining domestic partners as those in an “intimate, committed and exclusive relationship,” The Providence Journal reported Wednesday.
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Don’t get me wrong. Being able to take care of a loved one’s funeral arrangements is important, but it’s a pitiful substitute for marriage rights. Hopefully Rhode Island will catch up to the rest of New England soon (Tony P, let me know how it’s going).

 

Sigh.

MANCHESTER, N.H., May 20 (Reuters) - New Hampshire lawmakers unexpectedly rejected a bill on Wednesday that would have made the state the sixth in the United States to authorize gay marriage.

The state’s Democrat-controlled House of Representatives voted down the bill in a 188-186 vote, hours after its Senate approved the legislation 14-10 along party lines. An earlier version of the bill passed the lower chamber on March 26.

The legislature had been asked to approve language that would give legal protections, including the right to decline to marry same-sex couples, to clergy and others affiliated with religious organizations.

That wording was added by Governor John Lynch, a Democrat who promised to sign the bill if those changes were made.

The House vote against the governor’s amendment means the bill will be sent to a committee that will try to resolve the differences between the two chambers. It remains unclear how the governor would respond to any changes to his wording.

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State Representative Steve Vaillancourt, a gay Republican from Manchester, was a leading voice against the amendment securing religious liberties, saying that the House should not be “bullied” by the governor.

Vaillancourt said an earlier bill that did not provide protections to clerics or religious groups was the one that should have been passed, adding that the amended bill would allow discrimination to be written into state law.

The earlier bill passed both chambers.
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From Good As You:

Here are some of the current news stories from around the world.

 

*Zapata family delivers emotional statement and calls for federal hate-crime statutes
*Andrade gets life for murder of transgendered woman.

 
*2,000 LGBT New Yorkers Plan Trek to Albany to support LGBT civil rights.

 
*In MD, a new hate crime law would protect homeless people. This would be the first of its kind in the US. Having worked with people who were homeless, and knowing how vulnerable these individuals can be, I really hope this one passes.

 
*Gay hate crime convictions have doubled in Wales over the past three years.

 
*NH committee recommends killing gay marriage bill.

 

*Man sentenced to six years for attempted murder of “bisexual transvestite”. (Quotation marks from original headline. While the headline and the court say “transvestite”, the fact that the victim was in the process of obtaining gender reassignment indicates she’s transgender. )

 
*Youth pastor allegedly molested several girls and impregnated one.

 

Hooray for New Hampshire, and for New England in general .

After two days of debating, the New Hampshire House voted for gay marriage 186 to 179 after first voting against it, 183 to 182.

The first vote against equal marriage was so close that a representative asked for it to be reconsidered. After a few minutes of intense personal lobbying on the floor, it passed.
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The debate was ferocious, with one representative telling the anti-marriage contingent that it was against his religion to NOT solemnize gay marriage. “The state of New Hampshire should not have the right to impose your [anti-gay] religious beliefs on my family and my church,” he said.
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Indeed. The bigots are always whining about how their “religious freedoms” will be trampled if they can’t prevent others from enjoying life and having the same rights they do. Funny how they never consider the religious freedoms of others. They don’t give a darn that they are denying others their freedom of religion by imposing anti-gay legislation on everyone.

Anti-gay representatives made the argument, unsupported by research, that gay people are pedophiles and gay parents are harmful to children and that gay marriage would open the door to polygamy….
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They forgot to argue that gay marriage will cause the end of the world within 10 years. That surely is more important than all of those other things.

The bill next advances to the state Senate. Gov. John Lynch, a Democrat, is opposed to gay marriage, though he has not indicated whether he would veto the bill.
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Hopefully he won’t pull a Schwarzenegger like Vermont’s Governor Douglas seems likely to.