New Hampshire GOP Marriage Repeal Advocate Wants Non-Binding Public Vote

New Hampshire GOP state Rep. David Bates has a new plan to end same-sex marriage.

The sponsor of a bill to repeal New Hampshire's same-sex marriage law proposed Tuesday to give voters a chance to weigh in through a nonbinding ballot question on whether the state should restore a 2007 civil unions law. State Rep. David Bates, a Windham Republican, said his proposal would repeal same-sex marriage effective March 31, 2013, and replace it with civil unions. He said if voters decide in November they want to keep civil unions for same-sex couples, gay marriage would be repealed. He said if voters object to repealing gay marriage, lawmakers would have time to stop the repeal from taking effect.

Standing Up For NH Families reacts:

Representative Bates is now trying an 'everything but the kitchen sink' approach in his sputtering effort to repeal this popular law. Changing the definition and throwing in another non-binding referendum doesn't change the facts. Bates had his referendum in 2010 and cities and towns overwhelmingly rejected it. This is nothing more than a desperate, last minute Hail Mary pass. The truth is voters like this law, more than 2000 couples have already married and in New Hampshire, we don't take rights away. This is nothing more than window dressing and the legislature should reject this out of hand.