Republican leaders in the New Hampshire
House appear to be distancing themselves from an effort to repeal the
state's gay marriage law.
According to the AP, gay marriage is
noticeably absent from the House Republican agenda introduced
Thursday.
Republican House Leader D.J.
Bettencourt told the AP that gay marriage was not included on the
agenda because lawmakers did not need to spend much time on the
issue.
“If their minds aren't already made
up, it's something they're intimately familiar with,” Bettencourt
said of his GOP colleagues.
However, gay marriage foe the National
Organization for Marriage (NOM) had last week publicized that it
expected the repeal bill to come to the House floor for a vote on
Wednesday, but it did not.
The previous day, Governor
John Lynch reiterated his pledge to veto such a bill if it reached
his desk.
House Rep. David Bates' bill would
replace marriage with civil unions for any unmarried adults,
including relatives, and would allow anyone to refuse to recognize
such unions. If approved, New Hampshire would become the first state
to legislatively overturn such a law.
An October survey found few New
Hampshire voters (27%) in favor of repeal.
Roughly 2,000 gay and lesbian couples
have married since the law took effect two years ago.