New Hampshire Republicans Defend Marriage Equality

The impressive feature of yesterday's victory for marriage equality was the extent of Republican support for defending marriage equality. The GOP has an overwhelming 3 to 1 majority in the State House, but the bill went down by almost 2 - 1. Among the 211 votes against, were about 100 Republicans (nearly half of the total), who defied their caucus leadership on the matter.  This is a valuable illustration of how even political conservatives are coming to see gay marriage as consonant with their values, and not in conflict with their religious beliefs.

“The people that are supporting repeal want their personal religious views to be the law of the land. I hate to say it, but that's really what it's coming down to,” Representative Tammy Simmons added. “It's great to have faith and it's great to have religion, but that should dictate your life, not how somebody else lives their life.”

This decision to stand with libertarian principles rather than traditionalist impulses represents victory in the effort to modernize the Republican Party and expand its appeal rather than courting a backlash by reinforcing some of its negative stereotypes.

In particular, some legislators were concerned that an ideological over-reach by social conservatives could alienate independent voters—who make up a plurality of registered voters in the Granite State—in the next election. “I am concerned about the message it could sends to Independent voters,” said Schroadter. “I'm a Republican for small government, low taxes, and pro-business initiatives. This [marriage equality] is just one of those issues that government should probably stay away from.”

Attitudes toward same-sex marriage have changed dramatically in the past few years alone, with 59% of independents now supporting it, compared to 49% in 2010, according to Gallup. Significantly, only 7% of New Hampshire Republicans voted for the Freedom to Marry in 2009.

“What's happening here in New Hampshire is the amazing new direction that the Republican Party is taking at the state level,” said Tyler Deaton, a spokesperson for New Hampshire Republicans for Freedom and Equality PAC. “We’ve got so many Republican state representatives that are opposed to this repeal effort. And it's like the Republican Party's getting back to its roots—values of individual freedom and liberty and equality. It’s been an exciting thing to see. I think that New Hampshire is going to be a model for the national Republican Party to see that it is okay for the Republicans to be inclusive of gays and lesbians and to be in favor of equal rights. It's a new step forward for the party.”

It is healthy and heartening to see libertarians stand up to social conservatives on matters of principle and conscience, aiming for a philosophic consistency that reconnects the Republican Party to its roots as a force for expanding individual freedom.

- The Daily Beast.

Ostrich of the week award goes to the sponsor of the bill, Bill Bates, who said he simply did not believe the polls that showed very limited voter support for repeal.

In a poll released in early February by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, 59 percent of respondents were either strongly or somewhat opposed to repealing the law, while 32 percent said they supported repeal. But Mr. Bates said he did not believe that the results truly reflected public opinion.

Mr. Bates said the repeal effort could return next year, adding, “I don’t think this is the end of it.”

Related articles

• AP: "NH House kills gay marriage repeal bill"
  
• Should Two Left-handed People Be Permitted to Marry?

• New Hampshire House Kills Marriage Equality Repeal Bill (thinkprogress.org)
  
• IRONY ALERT: Anti-Gay Group Complains About Out-Of-Staters 'Buying' Marriage Equality In New Hampshire (thinkprogress.org)
  
• My Kids See Marriage Equality as a Non-Issue (mlp.org)

Should Two Left-handed People Be Permitted to Marry?

The Catholic theologian James Alison and others have frequently made the point that there are many parallels between left -handedness and homosexuality. Both occur entirely naturally in a small but significant minority of people, both are entirely non-pathological - and both have historically been treated with suspicion and condemnation, including condemnation in the name of religion. The world has moved on from branding left-handedness as sinister, and no longer says to people who are naturally left-handed that "It's OK to be left-handed, just don't write left - handed": but that's an exact counterpart of what the Catholic Church says to its gay and lesbian Catholics: "It's not a sin to be gay, but it is a grave sin to do gay".

left and right handed scissors 

Think of it this way. There is a distinction between left-handedness and the act of writing left-handedly. For most of us the distinction remains exactly that, and has no moral consequences. We would understand that a left-handed person forced to write right-handedly owing, say, to having their left arm in a plaster cast, or a right-handed person forced to write left-handedly for analogous reasons, would, with some difficulty, be able to learn to do so. These people would in some sense be acting “contra natura”. But the use of the hand appropriate to their handedness would be entirely unremarkable, and if we used words to describe it at all, they would be words like “typical” or “natural”. Now, imagine that, involved in a Catholic discussion, you find yourself addressing a left-handed person. You say: “Any left-handed writing you do is intrinsically wrong; and in fact the inclination we call left-handedness must be considered objectively disordered.” The only justification for using the distinctions in this way is if you have received, from quite other sources, the sure knowledge that right-handedness is normative to the human condition, anything else being some sort of defect from that norm, and yet you don’t want entirely to condemn the person who has a more or less strong tendency to left-handed writing.

- James Alison

Left-handedness would seem to be irrelevant to modern political discussion, but this symmetry between it and homoerotic orientation has suddenly and unexpectedly become an entertaining sideshow in marriage politics, New Hampshire.

NH Bill to Revoke Gay Marriage Will Harm GOP - State Rep

February has come to an end, and there's still no sign of the threatened bill to repeal marriage equality - a bill that was originally promised as a priority for the New Year, then was delayed until after the January primary, then put off until February, and then put off until....... when? and why?

With recent polls showing that only 27% of state voters favouring repeal, GOP Rep has a simple explanation: the bill will hurt the Republican party's electoral chances for November. In this libertarian leaning state, they're getting cold feet.

Mr. Bates said that if the repeal bill failed this year, he would not give up. Governor Lynch is leaving office at year’s end, and both Republicans who have entered the race to succeed him support repeal. 

State Rep Seth Cohen (GOP)

But Representative Seth Cohn, a libertarian Republican who opposes the repeal, said he thought it would in fact harm the Republicans’ chance of staying in power after 2012, whether or not it succeeds.

“They want this as an election issue,” he said of the Democrats. “I think it’s going to backlash against the Republicans who, in the face of the polls, are choosing not to believe the average person is O.K. with this situation.”

 - NYTimes.com.

NH Voters Oppose Gay Marriage Repeal

<p style="text-align: justify;">With a number of US states in the news over reports of moves to provide for same - sex marriage (legislative initiatives in Washington, New Jersey, Maryland and Illinois, a voters' referendum in Maine, and last week's court victory in California), and high profile push-backs in Minnesota and North Carolina, it is easy to overlook what is happening (or not) in New Hampshire.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">When the Republicans made major electoral gains in November 2010, regaining control of the State legilature, they were quick to announce their plans to repeal the legislation for <a class="zem_slink" title="Same-sex marriage" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage" rel="wikipedia">marriage equality</a>. Since then, there have been a series of delays. First, there came the announcement that although repeal was important, it would not take place in 2o11, but would wait until 2o12. Late last year, it was said that repeal would take place early in 2012 - then that was pushed back until "after the GOP primary". The primary came and went - and the candidates most visibly opposed to equality were bottom of the poll. Then, it was said that repeal would take place some time in February. It has still not been sheduled.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">A report on fresh opinion polling illustrates precisely why the political leadership is getting cold feet - repeal is a clear vote loser.</p>

<blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #000080;"><em>The University of New Hampshire Survey Center on Feb. 7 polled Granite Staters on same-sex marriage, as it has several times since 2009. This time, citizens were asked if they support or oppose repeal of the law. Results indicate 59 percent oppose and 32 percent favor repeal.</em></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #000080;"><em>"It's been the same each time we ask — about 2-1 in favor of same-sex marriage," said survey center director Andy Smith. "It's not an issue most people care about one way or the other. Proponents are very much in favor, opponents are very much opposed. But for most people, it's a shrug."</em></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #000080;"><em>Smith said the polling numbers are so strong that, Republican majority or not, he predicts the repeal bill will not ultimately pass the N.H. House and Senate.</em></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #000080;"><em>"I don't see there's going to be a real strong push to pull this through," he said. Legislators "can push against public opinion somewhat, but if you have your eye on November, you don't want to jeopardize your own seat and you don't want to jeopardize party control."</em></span></p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><em>via <a href="http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20120212-NEWS-202120332">SeacoastOnline.com</a>.</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify;">For Catholics, the religious dimension is of particular interest.</p>

<blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><em style="color: #000080;">"It's a time of change and the momentum is with gay marriage," said Michele Dillon, chair of the sociology department at UNH, who specializes in sociology and religion.</em></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><em style="color: #000080;">Poll after poll shows what Cox calls the "millennials" — those age 18 to 29 — overwhelmingly favoring same-sex marriage. "The younger generation is perplexed that it's even an issue," Dillon said. "They're just totally ahead on that."</em></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #000080;"><em>The UNH poll indicates 71 percent of those age 18 to 34 "strongly oppose" repeal of New Hampshire's gay marriage law with another 14 percent somewhat opposing repeal.</em></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #000080;"><em>In a PRRI poll taken last June, 62 percent of millennials favor gay marriage, including 49 percent who identified themselves as Republicans.</em></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #000080;"><em>Dillon, who studies issues like gay marriage through the lens of both sociology and religion, said gay marriage is the new contraception issue for many Catholics, in particular. <strong>"Years ago, committed Catholics said 'We can be good Catholics without adhering to the Catholic teachings on contraception,'" she said. "Now it's happening with gay marriage. Most Catholics disagree with some aspect of church teaching."</strong></em></span></p>
</blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Today, Feb. 12, is World Marriage Day. Expect the bishops and other conservative sources to interpret this in terms exclusively related to what they erroneously think of as "traditional" marriage. Marriage, however, has undergone many transformations in Western history, and as I showed in discussing Pope Benedict's praise of marriage to Italian politicians, the social benefits of marriage apply to all marriages - not only those approved by Catholic bishops.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">We too, can celebrate World Marriage Day.</p>

<div class="zemanta-pixie" style="margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" title="Enhanced by Zemanta" href="http://www.zemanta.com/"><img class="zemanta-pixie-img" style="border: none; float: right;" src="http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_c.png?x-id=c06951f9-3902-4ceb-91cc-a2b8793c7585" alt="Enhanced by Zemanta" /></a></div>

Gay Marriage, New Hampshire: Not Going Away

When the GOP took control of the New Hampshire legislature last November, social conservatives were jubilant it would enable them to reverse the legal recognition now given to same-sex couples. It is unlikely that they will have their hopes realized.  Republican leadership deliberately stalled on the issue, putting it onto the back burner until next year. 

Research out last week, replicating the results of an earlier poll in February, shows why. By a two-to-one majority, New Hampshire voters do not want to repeal the existing marriage equality law. Not even Republican voters have a simple majority to support repeal.  With that level of public opposition, it is unlikely that if it ever came up for a vote in the legislature, the only possible result will be an embarrassing defeat. 

In New Hampshire, marriage equality is here to stay.

A WMUR Granite State Poll issued last week found 62 percent of New Hampshire adults oppose the law’s repeal, 29 percent support repeal and 10 percent don’t know what they think or have have no opinion. Almost as interesting is that 47 percent of the respondents said the two-year-old law has had no impact on the state and 38 percent said it’s had only a minor impact. Just a scant 8 percent said the law has had a major impact on the state.

Even if you count only Republicans, support for repeal of the law falls short of a majority – 45 percent.

These numbers are essentially identical to the ones registered when the same questions were asked of New Hampshire adults in February.

There can be no argument. A clear majority of New Hampshire citizens do not want the same-sex marriage law repealed, period. Whatever voters thought were the transgressions of Democrats when they stepped into the voting booth a year ago, same sex marriage wasn’t one of them."

-NashuaTelegraph

Related articles

• 50 Percent of New Hampshire Residents 'Strongly Oppose' Repealing Marriage Equality Law: Poll (towleroad.com)
• Part Of The Landscape I (andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com)
• Nearly 2/3rds Of New Hampshirites Oppose Repealing Marriage Law (lezgetreal.com)