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Same-sex marriage wins by 7 votes (3/27/2009)




The New Hampshire Senate voted, 13-11, today to allow adult same-sex couples to marry, approving an amended version of a House-passed bill after a vote to kill the legislation altogether failed by the same margin.

The bill passed by the Senate recognizes a distinction between civil and religious marriages and allows religious denominations to decide whether they will conduct religious marriages for gay or lesbian couples. Civil marriages would be available to both heterosexual and same-sex couples under the law. “This bill recognizes the sanctity of religious marriage and the diversity of religious beliefs about marriage while still providing equal access to civil marriage to all New Hampshire citizens,” said Sen. Maggie Hassan, an Exeter Democrat.

The legislation cannot advance to the governor for his signature or veto unless both houses approve the same version.

Earlier, the Senate voted, 14-10, in favor of a bill that would allow seriously ill patients to use marijuana if it is prescribed by a doctor and if they register with the state.

The vote fell largely on party lines, with Berlin Sen. John Gallus the only Republican to vote for it and Manchester Sen. Betsi DeVries the only Democrat to vote against it.
Sen. Kathy Sgambati said the measure was a compassionate one that would allow sick patients to access a drug that might help them. She recounted testimony from patients, including from one mother who said she used marijuana to control a muscular degenerative disease, in part because legally prescribed opiates left her “out of touch with reality” and unable to look after her children. “The plea from all of them is we are patients, we are not criminals,” she said.
Gov. John Lynch has expressed “concerns” about the bill and, according to supporters from the House, had called senators to speak against the bill. The pro-medical marijuana Coalition for Common Sense Marijuana Policy plans to hold a press conference tomorrow to urge the governor to back the bill and to unveil a commercial featuring a medical marijuana patient that will air on WMUR.

The bill would allow severely ill patients or their caregivers to grow and possess six marijuana plants and two ounces of the drug. The measure requires doctors to certify a patient has a debilitating medical condition and would benefit from using marijuana. The Senate version of the bill adds to restrictions forbidding the use of medical marijuana in any public place, workplace, school or jail. It prevents anyone convicted of a drug-related crime of being named a designated caregiver. It protects the privacy of patients and sets up a study committee to look at a simpler, more protected system for providing medical marijuana to those who need it.

Senators unanimously killed a transgender rights bill that opponents had lampooned as the “bathroom bill.” The bill would have banned landlords and employers from discriminating against transgender people – those who are born into one sex but identify as the other, some of whom undergo a sex-change operation. Opponents claimed that the measure would give carte blanche to predators to enter any bathroom or locker room they pleased.
Two senators inveighed against the opposition campaign and vowed to keep the issue alive in years to come. “My colleagues and I know that the distortion and misnaming of this bill is an outrage and embodies the very core of ugly and misplaced prejudice we had hoped this bill would prevent,” said Sen. Martha Fuller Clark, a Portsmouth Democrat.
Sen. Jackie Cilley reserved particular scorn for journalists who put “bathroom bill” in headlines and in the lead of stories. “I say you are not journalists,” she said. “You have served merely as stenographers. You should hang your heads in shame.”

Concord Monitor Online will have updates throughout the day as the Senate takes up several other issues, including mandatory seatbelt use and gay marriage. Look for complete coverage in tomorrow's Concord Monitor.