The New Hampshire state Senate voted 13-11 to legalize same-sex marriage on Wednesday. The legislation, which distinguishes civil marriages from religious marriages, will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2010 if it is not vetoed by Gov. John Lynch, D-N.H.
Lynch has said publicly that he opposes same-sex marriage, but has not commented on whether he will veto the legislation.
In a statement published on his web site after the vote, Lynch said he believes that New Hampshire's decision to legalize same-sex civil unions in 2007 has already addressed the issue of equal rights for same-sex couples in the state.
"I still believe the fundamental issue is about providing the same rights and protections to same-sex couples as are available to heterosexual couples," Lynch said in the statement. "To achieve further real progress, the federal government would need to take action to recognize New Hampshire civil unions."
After a reconciliation process with the New Hampshire House of Representatives, the bill will automatically become law if Lynch takes no action against it. The state House approved a version of the bill on March 26.
Before passing the bill, the Senate approved a floor amendment that drew a distinction between religious and civil marriages.
The N.H. Senate judiciary committee recommended the defeat of the original version of the bill, without this amendment, by a 3-2 vote last Thursday.
State Sen. Deborah Reynolds, D-Plymouth, chair of the judiciary committee, said she originally voted against the bill because of objections to the legislation from religious officials. She also believed that the bill lacked widespread support, she said.
Reynolds decided to reconsider her initial position after the Maine state legislature's joint judiciary committee decided on Tuesday to recommend the repeal of Maine's same-sex marriage ban, she decided.
"I think that's why there was a consensus [for an amendment] -- the action that the Maine Senate took was just another indication that, at least in our part of the world, there's a groundswell of support for this, and to ignore what's happening regionally would be very myopic," Reynolds said.
The amendment is a fair compromise and accounts for people's concerns about preserving the concept of traditional marriage, she said.
Mo Baxley, executive director of the New Hampshire Freedom to Marry Coalition, said she thought the state Senate's distinction between civil and religious marriages will be beneficial to future discussions about marriage rights.
"I think [the distinction] will be tremendously helpful because there are concerns, even though they're not warranted, that whatever we do in civil marriage affects religious marriage," Baxley said.
N.H. State Rep. Peter Batula, R-Hillsborough, who voted against the House version of bill, said he does not support any legislation that changes the traditional definition of marriage.
"In my opinion, marriage is between a man and a woman," Batula said. "It's really that simple, and it's biblical, and if it's in the Bible, I believe it."
The bill does not compel any official, religious or civil, to grant a marriage license to a same-sex couple if doing so conflicts with his or her personal beliefs, Reynolds said.
State Sen. Matthew Houde, D-Plainfield, said he believes that there is widespread popular support for the bill.
"Someone who testified at the hearing a week or so ago said that this debate has already been decided, and people are just looking for us to recognize it," Houde said. "It's a question of when, not a question of if."
The N.H. House must respond to the Senate's amendments before Lynch can consider the bill. The House Judiciary Committee will vote to accept the Senate's changes, to reject them or to call for the bill to be considered by a joint conference committee. The conference committee, consisting of members from both the Senate and the House, would produce a compromise version of the bill, which would then require approval by both houses of the legislature.
Three states -- Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa -- currently permit same-sex marriages. The Vermont legislature overrode Republican Gov. Jim Douglas' veto of a bill legalizing same-sex marriage on April 7. Vermont's law will take effect on Jan. 1, 2010.
