New Hampshire House of Representatives Votes Against Proposed Legislation to Repeal Marriage Equality

Yesterday, New Hampshire’s House of Representatives voted against proposed legislation intended to repeal marriage equality by a margin of 211 to 116. New Hampshire’s state legislature had voted for marriage equality in 2009 when the legislature had a democratic majority, but the law has come under attack since Republicans gained control of the house in 2010. However, with strong bipartisan support, the house renewed its commitment to ensuring marriage rights to same-sex couples in New Hampshire, with both this vote and the rejection of the Bates Amendment, which would have led to a ballot measure in November proposing a return to civil unions for gay and lesbian couples instead of the current freedom of marriage.

As Overbrook grantee Freedom to Marry has reported, repealing marriage equality in New Hampshire was a top priority for anti-gay organizations this year. The excellent organizing and advocacy work by the bipartisan coalition of civic, religious and political leaders making up Standing Up For New Hampshire Families, in which Freedom to Marry participated, helped to thwart these efforts. Marc Solomon, National Campaign Director for Freedom to Marry, released the following statement: “Our opponents tried to abuse the 2010 Republican legislative sweep in New Hampshire to repeal the popular law. What they didn’t count on was the fact that the freedom to marry is becoming a bipartisan value, as resoundingly reflected in today’s vote.” He continued, “We are grateful to Governor John Lynch for his principled defense of the freedom to marry law, and to the many lawmakers—both Republican and Democrat—who listened carefully to their constituents and recognized that New Hampshire is stronger when all committed couples can share in the freedom to marry.”

Here at Overbrook, we are pleased to see a recognition of the human and civil rights of all families and couples in New Hampshire through this broad bipartisan support for marriage equality. While there will be many more battles on this issue around the United States, this vote represents the ever increasing support of Americans for marriage equality. The Overbrook Foundation congratulates to Freedom to Marry and the other members of the coalition on their hard work to ensure the decisive margin of victory in this vote and to open the hearts and minds of both politicians and constituents to the critical importance of preserving marriage equality for all.

For more information, please see the blog from Freedom to Marry and a blog post from Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), another Overbrook grantee involved with the coalition of advocates working to preserve civil marriage for same-sex couples in New Hampshire.

New York Passes Same-Sex Marriage

Last week I blogged that The Marriage Equality Act was passed by the New York State Assembly and was headed directly to the State Senate. Well, unless you spent a long-weekend away from any kind of news or social media (which we all should do from time to time), you know that late on Friday night, the State Senate did in fact approve same-sex marriage, giving the national gay-rights movement one of its largest victories to date! The bill passed in a historic 33 to 29 vote and will take effect in 30 days. Last week’s victory was the result of decades of work by gay rights activists and politicians. New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat who had pledged to support same-sex marriage, also played a key role in this victory by making same-sex marriage one of his top priorities. Cuomo had his top aides coordinate the efforts of a half-dozen local gay-rights organizations that were working tireless for this victory.

With last week’s victory, New York now becomes the largest state where LGBT couples are able to legally wed. Currently, only five other states currently permit same-sex marriage: Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont, as well as the District of Columbia.

Let us hope that what happened here in New York serves as a turning point for other states around the country. The momentum is here, but it cannot be wasted. If you want to learn more about what you can do to ensure that what happened last week in New York will be replicated across the country, please check out the recent campaign from Freedom To Marry. You can add your voice to those supporting the freedom to marry and pledge to work to enable same-sex couples and their families to share equally in the responsibilities, protections, and commitment of marriage.

You can also watch this video to learn more the strategy for legalizing same-sex marriage in other states and ending federal marriage discrimination.

The Struggle for Civil Marriage for Same Sex Couples

As we await the New York Senate's action on the bill to provide civil marriage to same sex couples, we need to remind ourselves of the journey we've been on. The struggle to win rights and protections for same sex couples has been a rollercoaster of wins and losses, including on November 3rd the most recent defeat in Maine and the most recent victory in Washington (where voters upheld the Washington law passed earlier expanding legal protections for domestic partners to include all rights and protections held by married couples, with the exception of the word “marriage”). While there have been many setbacks along the way, the trajectory is strongly positive. In 2000, for example, no state extended the freedom to marry to same sex couples and only two – with 0.6% of the U.S. population – offered any recognition of same sex couples. Today, five states have marriage equality and another ten offer other forms of relationship recognition. These 15 states contain 37% of the U.S. population. The Civil Marriage Collaborative has supported state-based organizations fighting for same-sex marriage rights in every state where advances have been won. If we’ve learned anything along the way it’s that there is no quick and easy way to winning equality. Instead, it is perseverance – particularly when the going is the hardest – that pays huge dividends.

Rally for LGBT Rights and Marriage Equality

Russell Saray, my husband, and I attended Equality & Justice Day, an all-day rally in Albany, NY organized by the Empire State Pride Agenda. Over 2,000 advocates from across New York State petitioned their state assembly people and senators demanding support for legislation that would advance same-sex marriage rights through civil marriage, make schools safer for LGBT students and protect LGBT employees from discriminatory employment practices.

It was great fun and quite an eye opener. Until you've listened to a 17 year old transgender, Latino student from the Bronx describe his efforts to organize a gay/straight alliance in his high school, you don't begin to understand the bravery of these young people. And it was amazing to see how diverse LGBT people are in New York State. Every corner of the state was represented.

But, at least to me, most impressive was the number of young people who attended and boldly presented their stories and their demands to state legislators. It is clear that LGBT rights will be guaranteed by the next generation now coming into leadership positions in the movement.