Live Free or Live Free

We all knew it was coming, but glory be. New Hampshire did pass their civil-union/spousal union thingummy today. Gov. John Lynch says he'll sign it as soon as he gets it. After all these years of civil unions and same-sex marriage, this makes New Hampshire the first state to legislate same-sex unions per se without court action or threat thereof.

The new law will also recognize civil unions and same-sex marriages solemnized or entered into elsewhere.

There is a sweet symmetry here, as the Union Leader notes. Now in the region, Maine and Rhode Island are the only states without some same-sex union or marriage. Also, New Jersey has civil unions and a lot of agitation for marriage, and New York's governor is ready to introduce a same-sex marriage bill.

The Senate went by straight, if you pardon, party lines and approved the bill 14 to 10. This goes with the House approval three weeks ago by 243 to 129.

Not everyone is blowing up celebratory balloon though. As the AP story puts it:

"Let’s just call it what it really is, no sugar-coating, no b.s. This creates same-sex marriage. There is no right to marriage in either the New Hampshire Constitution or the federal Constitution. Rather it’s natural law that defines marriage," said Republican Sen. Robert Letourneau, of Derry.

Indeed. If that's what it is, why not make it that. Full marriage works here in Massachusetts.

By the bye, this is a legal matter, a civil contract one. Keep your personal religion off our laws, if you please.

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Tags: massmarrier, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, same-sex marriage, civil unions