Statement of Lee Swislow, Executive Director

The New Hampshire House of Representatives has taken a big stride toward addressing the painful legal void in which same-sex couples and their children live in New Hampshire.  Civil unions will provide protections previously off limits to same-sex couples. 

But the journey is not over until we have equality, until we have the same protections and choices as other New Hampshire citizens, until we have marriage.

We recognize that a vote on the civil union bill rather than the marriage bill is political compromise, albeit one that will provide many needed protections to families.  These gains are important to many families, but maintaining discrimination in the law also makes it bittersweet.

Because gay and lesbian families deserve equality and the same protections, dignity and respect as other families, GLAD is committed to full marriage equality as the final goal.   We want to ensure that a civil union law is enacted as a midpoint on the journey to ending discrimination against same-sex families, and not an endpoint.

When legislators listen to their gay and lesbian constituents, as New Hampshire’s legislators clearly did, they understand it is intolerable to treat committed same-sex couples as legal strangers.  As the conversation continues, we hope lawmakers will come to see that marriage should be a choice for same-sex couples for the same reason it is for everyone else, and that there is no need to maintain a different and lesser system just for gay people.

We urge the Senate to pass the bill, and the Governor to sign it.  And we urge the citizens of New Hampshire to set their sights on full equality.  GLAD will be there to fight for legal protections and marriage equality, along with all our allies in New Hampshire.

Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders is New England’s leading legal organization working to end discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and HIV status.

# # #