Does Maggie Gallagher, board chair of
the anti-gay marriage group the National Organization for Marriage
(NOM), support gay unions?
Gallagher's testimony Thursday before a
New Hampshire committee considering measures to repeal the state's
gay marriage law would suggest as much.
“Our argument is not that we have a
right to discriminate, it's that our traditional understanding of
marriage is not discrimination. It is not discrimination to treat
different things differently,” Gallagher told lawmakers.
Gallagher argued that limiting marriage
to opposite-sex couples provides an “important public interest”
because they are “the only unions that can make new life and
connect those children in love to their mother and father.”
In closing her remarks, Gallagher urged
lawmakers to find “other ways to meet the legitimate and practical
needs of gay and lesbian and other relationships.”
The remarks would suggest that
Gallagher supports government recognition of gay and lesbian couples
with civil unions or domestic partnerships. And she has previously
said as much. Provided such unions don't "threaten" marriage.
Nevertheless, NOM urged supporters late
last year to oppose a civil unions bill in Illinois, calling it
“same-sex marriage by a different name.”