News

By Kathleen Gilbert

CONCORD, New Hampshire, March 26, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – New Hampshire’s House of Representatives today voted 186-179 to approve a bill that would make it the third state, after Connecticut and Massachusetts, to redefine marriage to include same-sex couples.

The first attempt to pass the bill fell one vote short. However, opponents were unable to kill the bill and another vote followed shortly after, at which point it passed. 

On Wednesday, the House killed legislation aiming to definitively protect the true definition of marriage.

The Associated Press reports that the future of the bill in the Senate is uncertain, and Democratic Gov. John Lynch has said he opposes same-sex “marriage,” but declined to say whether he plans to veto the legislation.

Two years ago, New Hampshire’s legislature and Gov. Lynch both approved civil unions providing same-sex couples all the privileges of legal marriage.

The New Hampshire vote came a day after Vermont’s Republican Gov. Jim Douglas announced he would veto similar marriage legislation, which the state Senate had just passed.  It is uncertain whether the two-thirds majority needed in both Houses to overturn Douglas’ veto will emerge.