The New Hampshire House will take up
Wednesday two measures that attempt to repeal the state's
six-week-old gay marriage law, the AP reported.
One bill would repeal the gay marriage
law approved by lawmakers last year, while the second defines
marriage as a heterosexual union in the New Hampshire Constitution,
effectively banning gay marriage and blocking the state Supreme Court
from taking action.
Both proposals met with strong
opposition from Democratic members of a key House panel which
considered the bills last week. With a 2 to 1 margin, the House
Judiciary Committee recommended that the House kill both measures.
State Representative Nancy Elliott
touched off a loud debate in the blogosphere after video of her
testimony condemning gay sex at the hearing was posted on
YouTube.com. The video was quickly taken down.
“We're talking about taking the penis
of a man and putting in the rectum of another man and wriggling it
around in excrement. And you have to think, would I want that to be
done to me?,” Elliott, a Republican from Hillsborough, testified.
Elliot also alleged that the new law
was hurting children, a standard claim of gay marriage opponents.
New Hampshire public schools are
“showing presentations of anal sex … They are showing our fifth
graders how they can actually perform this kind of sex … that is
the context of the lesson, that 'This is something that you, as a
fifth grader, you may want to try,'” she said.
Gay marriage opponents concede the
Democrat-controlled Legislature is unlikely to reconsider its
decision this year, but they hope to use the issue to alter the
political landscape in their favor in November.
State Representative David Bates, a
Republican from Windham, is behind a grassroots effort to raise the
issue at town hall meetings this spring. The
campaign encourages people to put a non-binding resolution calling
for a vote on gay marriage before town voters. Bates said he
expects a large majority of New Hampshire's towns will put the issue
on the agenda.