NH Law Allows Same-Sex Unions; OR Domestic Partnership Stalls
The state of New Hampshire, while little remembered on a national stage for most of the year, grabs the spotlight during the first few weeks of this presidential election year. That's because it holds one of the first two primary elections of the year, along with Midwest state Iowa.
But this year, while doubt and frenzy over the political field at this year's presidential primaries has once again taken center stage, the state of New Hampshire is grabbing attention for another landmark moment.
On Tuesday, the first day of 2008, a law in New Hampshire took effect that allows same sex couples to be joined in formal civil unions. With the effective date of the new law, New Hampshire joins just five other states that allow same-sex marriage or similar rights through civil unions or domestic partnerships: Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, California, and New Jersey.
The bill, passed in the New Hampshire House of Representatives as H.B. 0437, states that the new law "permits same gender couples to enter civil unions and have the same rights, responsibilities, and obligations as married couples." More specifically, the law states in its first clause that the state "recognizes the civil union between one man and another man or one woman and another woman."
The law also provides for recognition of same-sex marriages and civil unions that take place in other states, stipulating that they be recognized as civil unions under the current law. And, as part of the rights now extended, same-sex couples will be able to file for divorce as well.
A seventh state, Oregon, was also set to join the small group of states that have passed civil union or same-sex marriage laws, before a federal judge halted a domestic partnership law in that state due to legal challenges on the controversial law.
U.S. District Judge Michael W. Mosman suspended the effective date of the law, which would have gone into effect on January 1, 2008, on December 28.
The law has seen some heated controversy, including a large-scale effort to suspend the law and place it on a general election ballot in the upcoming November 2008 elections. However, that effort fell a mere 116 signatures short of the 55,179 needed in order to suspend the law.
However, with Judge Mosman's intercession in the case, the law will be suspended until a hearing in February, in which its opponents will argue for placement on the general ballot as before.
The pending Oregon law, passed in the 2007 General Assembly as H.B. 2007, would not cover the same comprehensive list of rights that the New Hampshire law and other, broader same-sex marriage and civil union laws cover. The Oregon law would cover benefits related to child custody, visitation rights, joint state tax filings, and joint insurance policies for health, auto and homeowner's insurance.
However, many federal benefits that are given to married couples would not be given to same-sex partners, including Social Security and joint filing of federal tax returns.
