The hopes of activists advocating for
repeal of New Hampshire's gay marriage law were dashed on Election
Night as Democrats regained control of the House.
As early as July, outgoing House
Speaker Bill O'Brien said he would make another attempt to repeal the
law if he returned as speaker.
“If our families are weak, then we’ll
never be able to have final fiscal responsibility, because if
government needs to step up for weakened families then there’s
going to be an unlimited call on government resources. One of the
things that makes our families strong is a traditional definition of
marriage and I firmly believe that,” O'Brien
said during an appearance on New Hampshire Public Radio's the
Exchange.
Despite outnumbering Democrats by a 3-1
margin last session, House members rejected a measure sponsored by
Rep. David Bates which sought to end gay nuptials in the state and
give gay and lesbian couples civil unions in their place.
The National Organization for Marriage
(NOM), the nation's most vociferous opponent of marriage equality,
criticized the roughly 100 Republican lawmakers who voted against
Bates' bill.
“The people of New Hampshire support
marriage as the union of one man and one woman, and we will not rest
until the Legislature corrects the mistake that was made in 2009,”
NOM said in a
full page ad calling on voters to “hold them accountable for
abandoning marriage.”
Democrats went from 104 seats to 221 in
the 400-member chamber on November 6. Bates was among the Republican
casualties.
Democrats on Saturday elected current
House minority leader Terie Norelli as their speaker for the next two
years. Norelli presided over the chamber in 2009 as lawmakers
approved the marriage law.