What a remarkable day for the New Hampshire House.

What a remarkable day for New Hampshire.

On March 23, in a vote of surprising clarity, state lawmakers upheld the state’s pioneering same-sex marriage law.

They voted bravely against the bigotry that says some New Hampshire residents have more rights than others.

They voted firmly against the premise that state lawmakers should ever revoke the civil rights of their constituents.

They voted squarely against a lastminute plan to put the rights of a minority group up to a popular vote on the November ballot.

They voted against the nonsensical — and likely unconstitutional — idea of creating two classes of gay couples: those married since January 2010 who would get to stay married and those who would be out of luck in the future.

They voted with common sense against the argument that gay marriage is bad for children or bad for schools or bad for local communities.

They voted proudly in the Live Free or Die tradition — the one in which government stays out of the private lives of its citizens.

They voted in the historic tradition of the House — the one that says new laws must actually fix actual problems.

They voted with conviction against the wishes of the speaker of the House.

They voted contrary to the desires of the bishop of Manchester and in the best interest of their neighbors.

They voted without regard for the anti-gay marriage movements in Maine, Minnesota, North Carolina and beyond.

They voted to discount the preposterous arguments of Rep. David Bates and Warren Groen, who tried in vain to convince their colleagues that the debate was about sexually transmitted diseases or polygamy or Muslims.

They voted in a bipartisan fashion that until now seemed to have gone out of style at the Statehouse.

Republicans voted differently than Mitt Romney or Rick Santorum, Ovide Lamontagne or Kevin Smith would have advised. Democrats went further than President Obama has ventured.

They sent a strong, simple message to gay kids and adults alike: New Hampshire won’t treat you differently because of your sexuality.

They sent a strong, simple message to New Hampshire residents of all sorts: Despite the dramatic change of the guard at the Statehouse, on some issues the Legislature will stand firm.

New Hampshire legalized civil unions for same-sex couples in 2007. Two years later, lawmakers replaced civil unions with marriage equality. Last week, they underscored their resolve.

For voters who have watched the antics of the New Hampshire House for the past 15 months with dismay, it was easy to be pessimistic in advance of the gay marriage vote.

Could the same lawmakers who have made life more difficult for students, for women, for poor people and people with disabilities and people with mental illness; the same lawmakers who have seemed obsessed with promoting guns and hurting labor unions — could these same lawmakers possibly vote with compassion when the rights of gay residents were put to a vote?

In fact, they could.

Let the courage of the House put the issue to rest in New Hampshire. Let it embolden Congress and the president to do the right thing too.

— The Concord (N.H.) Monitor

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