{"id":1421,"date":"2009-05-15T17:25:25","date_gmt":"2009-05-15T17:25:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/2009\/05\/nh-governor-oks-gay-marriage-w.php"},"modified":"2009-05-15T17:25:25","modified_gmt":"2009-05-15T17:25:25","slug":"nh-governor-oks-gay-marriage-w","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/05\/nh-governor-oks-gay-marriage-w","title":{"rendered":"N.H. Governor OKs Gay Marriage, with Religious Exemptions"},"content":{"rendered":"

(RNS) New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch said Thursday (May 14) that he would sign legislation legalizing same-sex marriage as long as religious groups would be not be forced to “violate their deeply held religious principles.”
\nState lawmakers said a bill with those protections could reach Lynch’s desk within weeks, thus making New Hampshire the sixth state — and the fourth in the past two months — to allow gay marriage.
\nLynch, who had opposed gay marriage, said in a statement that “my personal views on the subject … have been shaped by my own experience, tradition and upbringing. But as Governor of New Hampshire, I recognize that I have a responsibility to consider this issue through a broader lens.”
\nNew Hampshire’s openly gay Episcopal bishop, V. Gene Robinson, testified before a state Senate committee in April in favor of gay marriage, telling lawmakers that “not doing the right thing will…cost you, not just in the next election but also in your soul’s self-respect.”
\nRobinson and his longtime partner were joined in a civil union, which New Hampshire legalized in 2008, last June. Mike Barwell, a spokesman for Robinson, said under the gay marriage laws passed by New Hampshire’s Senate and House of Representatives, civil unions would automatically convert to marriages next year.
\nLynch proposed on Thursday that religious organizations, associations and societies — as well as individuals and non-profits managed, directed or supervised by a religious group — not be required to provide services, accommodations, facilities, goods or privileges to gay couples as a result of the gay marriage bill.
\nLynch also said the proposed legislation should not require fraternal benefit societies — such as the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic group — to change their admission standards.
\n“It will make clear that they cannot be forced to act in ways that violate their deeply held religious principles,” Lynch said of the proposed law. “If the legislature doesn’t pass these provisions, I will veto it.”
\nKevin Smith, director of Cornerstone Policy Research, a New Hampshire group that opposes against same-sex marriage in New Hampshire, told reporters that Lynch has flip-flopped on the issue.
\n“However the governor wishes to couch his decision on this,” Smith said, “the fact remains that by signing this bill, he will have broken his trust with New Hampshire voters after repeatedly stating that he opposes gay marriage.”
\nBy Daniel Burke
\nCopyright 2009 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(RNS) New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch said Thursday (May 14) that he would sign legislation legalizing same-sex marriage as long as religious groups would be not be forced to “violate their deeply held religious principles.” State lawmakers said a bill with those protections could reach Lynch’s desk within weeks, thus making New Hampshire the sixth…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nN.H. Governor OKs Gay Marriage, with Religious Exemptions<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/05\/nh-governor-oks-gay-marriage-w\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"N.H. Governor OKs Gay Marriage, with Religious Exemptions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"(RNS) New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch said Thursday (May 14) that he would sign legislation legalizing same-sex marriage as long as religious groups would be not be forced to “violate their deeply held religious principles.” State lawmakers said a bill with those protections could reach Lynch’s desk within weeks, thus making New Hampshire the sixth…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/05\/nh-governor-oks-gay-marriage-w\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-05-15T17:25:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"nsymmonds\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"N.H. Governor OKs Gay Marriage, with Religious Exemptions","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/05\/nh-governor-oks-gay-marriage-w","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"N.H. Governor OKs Gay Marriage, with Religious Exemptions","og_description":"(RNS) New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch said Thursday (May 14) that he would sign legislation legalizing same-sex marriage as long as religious groups would be not be forced to “violate their deeply held religious principles.” State lawmakers said a bill with those protections could reach Lynch’s desk within weeks, thus making New Hampshire the sixth…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/05\/nh-governor-oks-gay-marriage-w","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2009-05-15T17:25:25+00:00","author":"nsymmonds","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/05\/nh-governor-oks-gay-marriage-w","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/05\/nh-governor-oks-gay-marriage-w","name":"N.H. Governor OKs Gay Marriage, with Religious Exemptions","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-05-15T17:25:25+00:00","dateModified":"2009-05-15T17:25:25+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f960b23e9c3a51222269c557a209b4f2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/05\/nh-governor-oks-gay-marriage-w#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/05\/nh-governor-oks-gay-marriage-w"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/05\/nh-governor-oks-gay-marriage-w#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"N.H. Governor OKs Gay Marriage, with Religious Exemptions"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/","name":"Beliefnet News","description":"Top Religious News From Around the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f960b23e9c3a51222269c557a209b4f2","name":"nsymmonds","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/13d\/13ddfa3407d6847bc2fbd32a13b67708x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/13d\/13ddfa3407d6847bc2fbd32a13b67708x96.jpg","caption":"nsymmonds"},"description":"Nicole Symmonds is Beliefnet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Prayer editor and also covers Christianity. A New Yorker by birth but a Floridian by tenure, Nicole graduated from Florida A&M University with a B.S. in Public Relations and a minor in Sociology. She moved to NY to pursue a career in journalism which started at In Style magazine. There she learned the ropes of magazine reporting, researching, and writing\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand became exponentially more stylish. But what seemed like a deep interest in fashion and entertainment would soon be revealed as merely the vehicle that moved her closer to discovering her purpose, writing and covering matters of the Christian faith. While in her purpose-driven vehicle she can be found traveling between Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens for life, work and worship, respectively. From fashion to faith and the journey isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t over yet\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/author\/nsymmonds"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1421\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}