+My home state of New Hampshire rocks
Wow…The Governor of New Hampshire, John Lynch, signed into law a bill authorizing gay marriage today! I am so proud of my home state. Yes…I was born in New Hampshire and lived in that state when it was so red that the mere thought of electing a democrat was anathema to most who lived there. When I was growing up, the governor was a guy named Meldrim Thomson who not only reinstituted the death penalty in New Hampshire during his tenure but also openly threatened to veto all funding for the University of New Hampshire after the Gay Students Organization held a dance and performed a play on campus. As a side note, I believe he also supported apartheid. Needless to say, my parents never voted for the guy. I remember when I was in elementary school getting those hot dots, the little orange reflective stickers you were given to put on your shoes and clothes so you wouldn’t get run over at night. When we got them the pamphlet that came with them had Meldrim Thomson’s mug all over it. I distinctly remember drawing devil horns and a mustache on his picture in the pamphlet. My parents brain washed me well!
Anyway, as they say, You’ve come a long way, Baby! I couldn’t be prouder of my New Hampshire and the other New England states who have now all fallen in line on the gay marrgie issue (Rhode Island is the lone hold out now). I hold my head up high when I say I am a New Englander.
From CNN’s Ed Hornick and Paul Steinhauser
(CNN) – New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch signed same-sex marriage into law Wednesday night.
The bill, which passed the House 198-16 on Wednesday, was also approved by the state Senate 14-10.
Both chambers had previously voted to approve same-sex marriage into law but faced pressure by Lynch who wanted new language added to protect religious institutions.
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) — the nation’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender media advocacy and anti-defamation organization — applauded Lynch’s decision.
“Gov. Lynch’s signing of the marriage equality bill grants legal protections for same-sex couples in New Hampshire to take care of and be responsible for each other,” said GLAAD President Neil Giuliano. “As people get to know the loving and committed couples at the heart of marriage equality, our culture is moving to equality.”
Lynch, a Democrat, had said if the state legislature passed the new language, he would sign the bill into law.
“We can and must treat both same-sex couples and people of certain religious traditions with respect and dignity,” he said. “I believe this proposed language will accomplish both of these goals,” Lynch has said.
The governor said he spent the past months speaking to lawmakers, religious leaders and constituents in order to form his decision after New Hampshire’s legislature voted to approved same-sex marriages in the state.
The Granite State will become the sixth state in the nation – alongside Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Iowa and Vermont – to provide marriage benefits to gays and lesbians.
One behalf of homos everywhere, thank you!
Awesome — Iowa did the same not too long ago!
New England FTW! Can California get it together now?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grxnU-iGD8g
As Howard Stern said years ago. I support Gay marriage. Let them be just as miserable as the rest of us !
I still can’t get over Iowa! Way to go progressive states!
Nice post Annie!
“A rose by any other name, is still a
rose”. So call it what you will,
it is still what it’s always been.
As a solid conservative, I just wish government would get out of the business of marriage. Frankly, I could care less if 2 same sex people, or a group of women and 1 man want to be married. What makes people think they have the right to decide that for others? I just don’t get it. It bothers me that when people die they can not pick the people they want to have their assets without taxation. It is unfair to everyone who is not married. I can leave my husband everything tax free, up to 2.5 million dollars, but if my unmarried cousin died all of her assets would be taxed no matter who got them…and don’t get me started on hospitals deciding who your loved ones are and who can visit you there. It bugs me that so many anti-government, conservatives are anti-government until it is about legislating something they find morally necessary to regulate.
Oh well, I have to get back to setting fence posts.
Do you also support marriage between adults and children? If you’re really for “equality for all” then you can’t discriminate because of age. Get ready, this will be next. And please note, the New Hampshire law was only signed after it included a clause stating that no church has to perform a ceremony against its principles.
“But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.” – Mark 10:6-9
To Steve and Ryan: I completely understand what you are writing, however, marriage is not a Christian institution. Marriages occur all over the world outside of the Biblical writings. There is polyandry which occurs in places like Nepal where a woman marries multiple men, often times from the same family. Obviously, there is polygamy which has acceptance in 75% of the world’s cultures. For this reason, government should never be in the business of marriage. Yes, we have laws against sex with minors, that is outside of the marriage debate. Same sex marriage may be unacceptable to you, as it is to me, but we do not place our beliefs on people. Fornication is also unacceptable to me and the Bible, even though I have a 11 year old daughter and have only been married 9 years. We can teach the way we believe to people who want us to teach them, but we can not force people to follow God’s law. God does not care about people following his law out of legal obligation, He cares about the heart and wants us to follow His law out of love and devotion to Him and trust in Him. I do my darndest to follow His path because I know He has my best interests in mind when he created that path. If I go off of that path I know my life will be more difficult. I chose for Him to be my shepherd and I choose to stay in His pastures. You can not force people to be in the Lord’s pasture, God does not, and you should not try. Pray for them, love them as the Lord loves them, have compassion for them, but do not force them to follow the law. The law needs to be written on their hearts. Let people decide for themselves what path they will follow, what faith and beliefs they will have. Forcing them to follow the law will be worse for their eternal salvation than letting them make their own decision. We are not saved through following the law, we are saved through Christ, not by works, lest any man should boast.
As a woman who loves the Lord and His law, I feel deap pain for human beings who are dying in the hospital without the people they love most in the world because the hospital decided they are not “acceptable” as an immediate family member as defined by the government. How sad, too, for someone to save to create a legacy to hand down to people they love the most and have the government swoop in and take 30% of it after their death because the people they loved were not their “spouse”. Again, government needs to be out of the business of marriage. It is a cultural and spiritual relationship.
ahhh. i am also grateful to those that are coming around i live in the southern states i doubt they will come around anytime soon. ive never been one to care what others think i have a girlfriend, three children, and about to grad med school. i doubt the lives i save are going to care if im a lesbian.
Thanks Annie for your continued support! I like that you say the words out loud and not just over coffee with friends. The more people hear about high profile support the better.
I just left the states so I could be with my partner of five years. We couldn’t get married there and have her be recognised, so I moved back to the UK where our relationship is recognised by the government.
Annie,
Why don’t you explain why you are so obsessed with gay marriage being legal, and why you’re ‘so proud?’ Is this yet another trend you’re jumping on the band wagon for and want it for reasons you don’t really understand, or is this something you actually have a connection to?
You sure like to take pride in a lot of things that you didn’t to shit to work for. Get over yourself and leave the celebration for those who actually earned it.