Live free and civilly united
NEW ENGLAND may be known for its unforgiving winters and its chilly social customs, but the region nonetheless has become an island of tolerance for gay and lesbian couples.
Alone among states, Massachusetts allows gay couples to marry, while Connecticut and Vermont have legalized civil unions, a legal contraption similar but not identical to marriage. The circle of tolerance widened Thursday, as the New Hampshire Legislature gave final passage to a bill authorizing civil unions in that state. The state's Democratic governor, John Lynch, has vowed to sign the measure, which will take effect in January.
Whether they are of the same sex or of opposite sexes, committed romantic partners entangle their lives in ways large and small, and they should not need to draw up elaborate legal papers to visit each other in hospitals or inherit each other's property. Civil unions are an awkward creation. It is demeaning to gay couples to recognize by law that they are fit for most or all of the rights of marriage -- and then deny them the single word that best describes their partnership.
Nevertheless, the New Hampshire Legislature's action represents a notable advance, and not just because it's a state whose statutes ban same-sex marriage. The New Hampshire civil unions bill came about not because judges demanded it, but because elected lawmakers decided on their own that denying legal status to gay couples is indecent.
Maine has a domestic partnership law. Rhode Island legislators, meanwhile, have taken little action for or against gay marriage. Last fall, a Superior Court judge in Massachusetts ruled that Rhode Island gay couples can marry here because nothing in that state's laws prohibits it. Rhode Island's attorney general has concluded that his state should recognize such marriages. But that should not be the last word; Rhode Island should follow Massachusetts' lead and legalize gay marriage outright.
There are encouraging signs from elsewhere in the country. Last fall, Arizona, whose live-and-let-live political tendencies call to mind New Hampshire's, became the first to reject a proposed state constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. New Jersey enacted a civil unions bill after a court ruled that the state could not deny marriage rights. Fulfilling a campaign promise, New York's new governor introduced a bill to allow gay marriage, though its prospects are uncertain.
In time, we believe, people in states with laws or constitutional amendments banning gay marriage will come to see those provisions as a mark of shame. States that offer marriage to straight couples and marriage-lite to gays will recognize the absurdity of the situation -- and the insult to gay couples inherent in it.
For now, though, New Hampshire has reason to celebrate. The state has taken a large step toward securing for same-sex partners the rights that all committed couples deserve. 