The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : Same-Sex Marriage in New Hamphsire

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The Spectacle Blog

Same-Sex Marriage in New Hamphsire

By W. James Antle, III on 5.15.09 @ 1:13PM

New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch, a Democrat who campaigned as a defender of traditional marriage, has said he will only sign the legislature's same-sex marriage bill if it contains stronger religious liberty protections. Some marriage traditionalists regard this as a good-faith position on the governor's part, others see it as an attempt to straddle on a controversial issue.

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ECM| 5.15.09 @ 3:02PM

Surprise: a politician lied for political gain.

And give me a break, NRO: this will easily pass and, once the camel has its nose in the tent, they can worry about getting the rest of it in later cause all those religious folks are a bunch of bigots, you see.

William C. Duncan| 5.15.09 @ 3:20PM

I did not mean to be naive in my comment over at the Corner. I recognize that there is probably significant cynicism in the move and it clearly is a flip from the governor's earlier position supporting marriage as the union of a man and a woman. I think there is a glimmer of hope in even the mere recognition that there is a religious liberty conflict (since many advocates are arguing that marriage traditionalists just need to leave the public square). Yet it is only a "glimmer" because there is no guarantee these conscience protections will be retained or even intepreted in a robust way. The best protection for religious liberty (and for liberty from the encroaching state that believes it should be the creator of marriage) in this case would be to retain the traditional understanding of marriage. I would add, however, that we have to be realistic when we are losing marriage in a state and try to save whatever we can.