When New Hampshire governor, Democrat John Lynch, signed the bill this week making gay marriage legal, the New England state joined five others, in giving the gays the kind of rights the rest of us normal people thought we could hog to ourselves.
Little Rhode Island is now the single holdout in New England, but a bill is in the works to permit lovers of Family Guy, quahogs, and hawt cawfee have the right to get hitched, no matter what their genders.
Governor Lynch had insisted that protections be placed in the bill to shield religious institutions, which did not want to perform or recognize same-sex marriages. Supporters of the bill decried Lynch’s actions as supporting bigotry. Detractors of the bill believed they had finally killed gay marriage in the Granite State, when the state legislature relegated the bill to committee.
People of both sides believed the bill was essentially dead for this session.
But then the legislature very quietly addressed the governor’s concerns, and the bill was sent to him, and he signed it.
Opponents of gay marriage may just want to get their samurai swords ready for the traditional hari kari. The New Hampshire bill may serve as a model for other states, which are speedily passing gay rights measures. No state is immune from this scourge of equality.
In Utah, that home of Mormons, Big Love, and the Osmonds, the former Republican governor Jon Huntsman, Jr., supported civil unions before he was whisked away by President Obama to be Ambassador to China. Nevada just passed “everything but marriage” civil unions for same-sex couples. It seems that some people in Las Vegas finally figured out that in this horrible economy, the only people left who have money are the homos.
All totalled, six states now have gay marriage: Iowa, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Maine. Five additional states offer full privileges to same-sex couples, but just provide a different term called “civil unions:” California, Oregon, New Jersey, Washington, and Nevada. New York and Rhode Island are actively persuing gay marriage. Several other states, including Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Oregon, and Hawaii are looking at either option. Washington, D.C. and New York both recognize out-of-state gay marriages.
It seems gay people are no longer content with screaming “we’re here, we’re queer, get used to it” in the streets. Now they send out gilded invitations, make an announcement in the Times, and get registered at Bergdorf-Goodman.
Equality: It’s just not for heteros anymore.
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