The legislature's same-sex marriage commission issued its final report yesterday. As expected, the chief recommendation by the majority is to enact a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. From inception, the commission's been plagued by deep divisions. As New Hampshire Public Radio's Josh Rogers reports, those divisions show little sign of narrowing.
The rollout of the commission's findings got off to a typically fractious start. While reporters awaited the arrival of commission chairman Tony Soltani, a dissenting commission alternate sprung into action.
: It's not my normal duty to take the microphone when it's a press conference called by someone else, but as you can see, it's 5 after 2 now, and the chairman of the commission is late as usual. :
That's Manchester House Republican Steve Vaillancourt. He's a co-author of the commission's minority report. He spared little when it came to criticizing the commission's chairman, its process, and above all its findings.
:This commission was formed to go into all aspects of same-sex marriage or unions, and how NH could implement laws that would make this a fair process. That's what our charge was on this commission, and we chose to ignore that charge, and delve into the realm of homophobia instead. Fifty years from now, when gay marriage has become a fait accompli, and everybody realizes it's something that should've happened a lot sooner, history will look back in shame with what this commission has decided to do.:
In addition to recommending a constitutional change to ward off any possible court-imposed recognition of gay marriage, the commission proposed expanding the rights of patients to name specifically authorized hospital visitors. The final report also advised giving all individuals with parental status in other jurisdictions co-guardianship rights in NH. According to commission chairman Tony Soltani, the end result is one of which NH should be proud.
:We're being watched across the country. I've been talking to my colleagues across the country, and I've heard nothing but positive remarks about the way we went about it, what we did, the testimony we took, and the volumes and volumes of documents that we gathered in support of our conclusions. This is the most comprehensive work done on same-sex unions in the nation.:
But despite that claim, Soltani also conceded that the question of gay marriage will persist. He said patience should be in order.
:We need at least two generations to be able to tell you what the effects of the state recognition of same-sex unions will be. We need to have longitudinal studies, cohort studies, and genetic studies- twin studies. Twins are very hard to come by.:
Soltani never really specified what such investigations might prove about gay marriage, and when asked the more prosaic question on the difficulties children of same-sex couples can face when it comes to insurance coverage, Soltani shied away from a direct response. Instead he again stressed the need for more information.
:There are children that are in a same-sex union. I understand that. But we have data that goes both ways. One side says that those children are five times more likely to experiment in homosexuality. We also have data that says those children are just as likely to be homosexuals and heterosexuals. So which way do we go? The data is inconclusive.:
The ultimate result of the commission's work also remains up in the air. Both majority and minority reports will go to House and Senate leaders. Lawmakers will debate the amendment defining marriage when the legislature re-convenes in January. For NHPR News, I'm Josh Rogers.
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