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Maine Enacts Marriage Equality, NH Legislature Approves It

May 6, 2009 by savvyplanners.com 

via Gay City News
By: PAUL SCHINDLER

05/06/2009

New Hampshire Governor John Lynch, Maine Governor John Baldacci, and former Washington Mayor Marion Barry. (Gay City News)

Less than an hour after the Maine Senate gave final approval to a marriage equality bill, Democratic Governor John Balducci on May 6 signed the legislation into law. A day earlier, the House of Representatives had given approval to the measure, by a vote of 89-57, passed in preliminary form, by the Senate last week. The final Senate vote this week was 21-13.

In a written statement Balducci said, “In the past, I opposed gay marriage while supporting the idea of civil unions. I have come to believe that this is a question of fairness and of equal protection under the law, and that a civil union is not equal to civil marriage.”

The House vote on May 5 came shortly after the defeat of an amendment that would have forced the question onto a voter referendum in November. The amendment was defeated 85-62.

The Bangor Daily News described the House’s three-hour debate as “emotional,” but Representative James Martin, an out gay Orono Democrat, said, “I’m also glad we’ve moved beyond the contentious debate over the issue that’s taken place over the past 25 years. It was a very civil debate today.”

Martin and his partner celebrated a commitment ceremony nine years ago and plan to marry if the law is enacted in Maine.

The Bangor newspaper reported that while the bill had more Democratic votes than Republican, it passed with bipartisan support.

Noting he would soon celebrate his 53rd wedding anniversary, Representative James J. Campbell Jr., a Newfield Republican, said, “They have been the best 53 years of my life. I don’t want to stand here and say that two men and two women cannot have what I’ve had for the past 53 years with my wife.”

But Representative Michael Thibodeau, a Winterport Republican, said, “Let’s be honest. This isn’t about civil rights. It’s about a social agenda that tears at the very fabric of our society.”

Opponents of the legislation vowed to collect the signatures necessary to force any marriage equality legislation to go before the voters in a referendum. They would have to gather 55,087 signatures, according to the Bangor Daily News, in a state with a population of just over 1.3 million. Gay rights legislation has several times been forced onto the ballot in Maine.

Maine becomes the fifth state with marriage equality on the books. Three of the other four — Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Vermont — are in New England, and the other is Iowa.

Meanwhile in New Hampshire, the House Judiciary Committee on May 5 approved amendments to the marriage equality bill that the State Senate last week added to the legislation the House passed in March. House action on the Senate version is expected on May 6. As in Maine, New Hampshire’s Democratic governor, John Lynch, has not stated definitively how he will act on the bill.

And in Washington, DC, the City Council, by a vote of 12-1, approved a law recognizing legal same-sex marriages from other jurisdictions. Mayor Adrian Fenty, an African-American Democrat, has pledged to sign the measure, but the one dissenter on the Council, former Mayor Marion Barry, warned, “All hell is going to break lose. We may have a civil war. The black community is just adamant against this.”

When the New Hampshire Senate passed the marriage measure last week, Lynch articulated his long-standing preference for civil unions, which already exist there, over outright marriage equality, saying, “I still believe the fundamental issue is about providing the same rights and protections to same-sex couples as are available to heterosexual couples. This was accomplished through the passage of the civil unions law two years ago. To achieve further real progress, the federal government would need to take action to recognize New Hampshire civil unions.”

That message was similar to the statement Vermont’s Republican governor, Jim Douglas, made last month prior to vetoing marriage equality legislation, but Lynch has not ruled out signing the bill. The veto by Vermont’s Douglas was overridden by two-thirds of both chambers of the Legislature and the law was enacted there.

The primary difference between the Senate and House versions in New Hampshire is that the Senate approach explicitly distinguishes between civil and religious marriage, a component of the legislation that the House had originally not included, but that the Judiciary Committee there approved on May 5.

Seacostonline.com reports that Lynch has faced intense pressure from both proponents and opponents of the marriage bill as he considers his options. New Hampshire Freedom to Marry put volunteers on the streets in cities across the state this past weekend to urge voters to contact the governor in support. Mo Baxley, executive director of the group, said it has gathered 1,500 signatures in support of the legislation, and proponents have made up to 300 calls a day to the governor’s office. Baxley charged that out-of-state opponents are spearheading the drive to press Lynch to veto the legislation, saying, “We’re having only New Hampshire people call. We thought it was a better way.”

Brian Brown, executive director of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), a group based in Princeton, New Jersey, that pledges to spend millions in opposition to marriage equality nationwide, called Baxley’s charge “absurd,” stating, “New Hampshire people are calling us saying, ‘What can we do?’ Residents of New Hampshire don’t support same-sex marriage. Period. And they aren’t being listened to by the House and the Senate.”

Brown acknowledged, however, that NOM’s advertising, which has been generic to date, including the infamous “Gathering Storm” spot, is rolling out an ad targeting Lynch, and will work to defeat pro-marriage equality legislators in the next election. Seacoastonline.com reported the NOM television and radio campaign is costing the group $50,000.

Colin Manning, Lynch’s press secretary, said the governor “will be reviewing the legislation carefully.”

If New Hampshire enacts a marriage equality law, it would become the sixth state with marriage equality, leaving Rhode Island as the only New England holdout. Action is still possible this year in both New York, which recognizes legal out-of-state marriages by same-sex coupes, and New Jersey.

In the nation’s capital, former Mayor Barry’s fiery rhetoric led David Catania, an out gay Independent councilman, to charge that Barry’s words were “bigoted,” according to the Washington Post. That in turn led a group of African-American clergymen to storm out of the Council chambers.

The US Congress, in accordance with Washington’s Home Rule Charter, now has 30 days to review the legislation. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a written statement after the Council action saying, “I have long believed that Congress should not interfere with internal decisions made by the District of Columbia’s elected representatives — just as the Congress did not intervene in the State of New York’s recognition of valid marriage contracts in other jurisdictions.”

But, Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz, the ranking Republican on a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee, said, “Some things are worth fighting for, and this is one of them. It’s not something I can let go softly into the night.”

Eleanor Holmes, an African-American Democrat who is Washington’s non-voting delegate in Congress, praised the Council’s action, and said, “I do not believe that a serious attempt to overturn the Council bill will be made or will be successful.”

Catania has pledged to introduce a marriage equality bill in the City Council later this year.

©GayCityNews 2009

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