WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-N.H. Debates Same-Sex Marriage
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Lebanon, New Hampshire - April 14, 2009
"I think it is the opportunity to be treated equally," Darrell Hotchkiss said.
Darrell Hotchkiss and Jon Gilbert Fox have been together since the 1970s. They both supported civil unions when it was debated and then passed in New Hampshire two years ago and say the gay marriage bill is another step in the right direction.
"It certainly gives us the right of survivorship and the right if someone is in the hospital and you need something signed," Gilbert Fox said.
However the couple of over 30 years says equality on the federal level should be the goal-- no matter what term is used to describe it.
"Marriage: some people say it should be inclusive, some people say it should be exclusive. It is going to be inherently unequal. And it is just a matter of equal rights," Hotchkiss said.
Lori Harding agrees. She is a State Representative in Lebanon and voted for the gay marriage bill.
"We are not allowing people to have equal access to many of the privileges that people who are in heterosexual relationships have access to," said Harding, D-Lebanon.
"I can't see equal rights," said Norman Lessard, who is against civil unions and gay marriage. "The religion that I belong to, and I don't mind saying it is the Catholic faith, we were brought up that marriage is between and man and a woman."
If the Senate passes the bill and if the governor approves it, New Hampshire would become the fifth state to legalize gay marriage. But it passed the house in Concord by a very thin margin. Lessard says that people in the Granite State are sharply divided.
"I'm hoping that the Senate realizes this and listens to the cry of the people," Lessard said.
But Hotchkiss and Gilbert Fox are hopeful as well.
"I'm seeing more people changing their minds and more people helping other people change their minds," Gilbert Fox said.
Gov. John Lynch, D-New Hampshire, has spoken out against gay marriage legislation is the past, however, if the measure passes the Senate, it is not known if the governor plans to veto the bill or just let it become law without his signature.
Adam Sullivan - WCAX News
