Second Time's the
Charm

The New Hampshire house passed a bill on Thursday to legalize same-sex marriage after an emotionally charged three-hour floor debate and several rounds of procedural voting. After a second official vote, it passed 186-179, sending the bill to the state senate on April 9.

The house initially defeated the legislation by one vote. But when lawmakers decided not to table it, then to reconsider it, House Bill 436 was passed in front of a full gallery of onlookers.

The state began issuing civil unions in 2008.

New Hampshire governor John Lynch, a Democrat, said that he favors civil unions for same-sex couples but has not specified whether he would endorse a marriage bill if it were to reach his desk.

One of the state's openly gay legislators, Hanover Democrat David Pierce, gave an emotional speech in favor of the bill. He said that a handful of representatives switched sides on the second vote because they "wanted to be on the right side of history." Many were Democrats who represent parts of downstate New Hampshire, which tends to be more conservative than its northern counterpart. He added that there were Republican representatives who voted for marriage equality both times.

"I had one Democrat tell me that he 'walked into the hall with a firm no, but I pressed the green button because of your speech.' Then I had some others come up to me and say, 'I didn't vote with you, but you made it difficult,'" he told Advocate.com shortly after the vote on Thursday.

Pierce said that emotions in the house chambers were high. In fact, one Republican representative threw out a glaringly slanted statistic that children raised in households with same-sex parents are more likely to be abused.

"She didn't call me an abuser specifically, but she just got up and accused me of abusing my children," said Pierce, a father of two with his partner, Robert Duff. "And then I said, 'We already have kids. How is stabilizing my relationship bad for our children?'"

Pierce said that many of his constituents, "99.9%," said that they contacted him, encouraging him to vote "yes" on the measure. Some wanted him to vote against it, but he said people largely remained civil.

The bill, like others going through state legislatures currently, would not mandate religious institutions to recognize or conduct marriages for gay and lesbian couples.

New England neighbors Connecticut and Massachusetts are the only two states in the country that grant marriage equally to heterosexual and same-sex couples. Vermont's senate also approved a marriage-equality bill this week, and the house will debate the bill next week. However, Gov. Jim Douglas announced that he would veto the bill if it came to his desk, adding that he hoped the legislature would then focus instead on the economy.