Sunday, April 8, 2007

Spousal Unions in New Hampshire

The House of Representatives in the Granite State - the third-largest legislature in the English-speaking world, incidentally - overwhelmingly approved a bill that would create "spousal unions," its own version of civil unions. If approved by the Senate and the governor, it would give gay couples all the rights of marriage, while retaining for straight couples only the moniker itself. The bill would also allow for recognition of lawful civil unions and marriages from other states as well.

This is typical New Hampshire: tolerant, fair-minded, and above all sensible. This is the spirit that makes me love the state. (Here's the bill, appropriately laconic.)

I hope it passes. It should make for some interesting questions once the presidential hopefuls start to stump there in earnest! Mitt Romney, in particular, should come out looking like a Gordian knot, as is his wont.

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