Unlikely prospect for legislation in New Hampshire to reverse marriage equality; state House Judiciary Committee holds hearing

01/23/10 update

New Hampshire state Rep. Jim Splaine supports marriage equality, discusses he the January 20th hearing here. He told reporter Laura Keen that he expects the House Judiciary Committee to recommend that the House reject two measures to rescind and ban same-sex marriage. LetNHVote.com seeks non-binding resolutions from town meetings asking the legislature to approve a constitutional ban. Splaine said that supporters of marriage equality will lobby town meetings to reject the resolutions.

01/20/10 update

AP reports on the hearings by the state House Judiciary Committee. Kevin Smith, executive director of Cornerstone Policy Research, doubts that the legislature will approve HB 159. He favors the strategy - pursued by LetNHVote.com - of pressuring legislators to adopt CACR 28. If LetNHVote.com and its allies succeeded, New Hampshire voters would have opportunity to vote on whether to reverse marriage equality.

01/19/10 Sea Coast Online:

This article concerns a proposed law (HB 1590), and a constitutional amendment (CACR 28), that would, respectively, repeal New Hampshire's marriage-equality law and add a same-sex marriage ban to the state constitution. Tomorrow the state House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on HB 1590, followed by a hearing on CACR 28. (The Indiana Senate Judiciary will also hold a hearing tomorrow on SJR 13, a super-DOMA amendment.) According to one legislator, "Democratic majorities in Concord aren't going to switch their support" of marriage equality.

Opponents of marriage equality have embraced similar proposals in other states. They want voters to determine whether same-sex couples should have, or will continue to have, a right to marry. They ultimately aim to repeat perceived successes with Prop. 8 in California and Yes on 1 in Maine. Right now they have no better prospect in Iowa than they have in New Hampshire.