New Hampshire House rejects challenge to gay marriage. (Tony Schinella/Patch)
Didn't see
this coming.
After two hours of debate and 10 votes, the House Wednesday decided to keep the state's gay marriage law in place.
After voting down several amendments and a motion to table the bill, the House members finally decided to kill House Bill 437 on a 211-116 vote.
Some members objected to a proposed non-binding referendum on the issue, and others said the bill would take away rights the state has already granted.
“These folks are just people just like you are, they want the same things you do,” said Rep. Michael Ball, R-Manchester. “This bill needs to be put down. Put this dog down like it deserves to be.”
Democrats had a 216-174 majority in the New Hampshire House until 2010, when the GOP wave that year ushered in a tea party-dominated 298-102 super-majority. While Democratic Gov. John Lynch had promised to veto any effort to overturn gay marriage, it seemed obvious that Republicans would give it their best shot anyway.
Looking at the roll call of the vote, just one Democrat voted to repeal gay marriage, along with 115 Republicans. On the other hand, 119 Republicans and 92 Democrats voted to keep gay marriage, which means that Republicans couldn't even muster a bare majority of their own caucus to re-ban gay marriage.
In other words, progress.