About two-dozen members of the pro-gay marriage group Standing Up For New Hampshire Families held a news conference to urged the defeat of the bill slated for a vote in the House Wednesday. State Rep. Mike Ball, chairman of the Manchester Republican Committee, compared the repeal effort to a segregation law, and added he can’t back his party platform’s opposition to gay marriage.
"The Republican platform is wrong on that issue. That’s the bottom line. Much as I’d like to say we are a hundred percent right, on this one we are not right. This is a civil liberties issue."
The repeal bill’s sponsor, Rep. David Bates of Windham, wants to replace gay marriage with the civil unions law that was on New Hampshire’s books in 2008 and 2009. Bates bill would also postpone the date of the repeal until 2013, following a nonbinding ballot question on gay marriage in November.