Same sex marriage – rights a society can’t deny

By Wooi Meng Chin (wchin86@gmail.com)

It is always in a good posture to see more and more regions begin to recognise a basic human right that
society has been disregarded for far too long – same sex marriage.

New Hampshire, a northeast US state in the New England region, became the sixth jurisdiction to legalise
same sex marriage on June 3rd. It has been a long battle since the first voice on this issue was raised in the
state legislature. A long known conservative state in Atlantic north eastern region, New Hampshire breaks
its long standing social and political barriers in early 2000s when it first voted for a democratic
presidential candidate in 2004 at the time majority in US supported a republican incumbent [1] and began
overhauling much of its state laws to protect sexual orientation expression and outlaw discrimination
since 1998 [2]. New Hampshire is then seen as a state that is progress toward a more socially liberal
structure.

The Granite State made headlines again when it recognised civil union, a form of same-sex relationship
registration that grants rights and responsibilities similar to that of heterosexual couples in 2007. It was
the first state that passes such legislation without judicial intervention [3]. The civil union bill, HB437 [4],
was approved by the State House on April 4th, 2007 with a vote of 243 to 129. The State Senate approved
the similar bill with a majority of 14 to 10. The bill was signed by Governor John Lynch on May 31, 2007
and took effect from January 1st, 2008 onwards.

Now, in less than two years since the introduction of civil union law, the state furthers its existing
recognition of same sex couples with same sex marriage. The bill to authorise same sex marriage was first
proposed in the New Hampshire House of Representative on March 18th, 2009 and underwent several
debates and amendments before being approved by both House and Senate on June 3rd, 2009 and signed
by the Gov. John Lynch on the same day. The same sex marriage law is scheduled to take effect from
January 1st, 2010 onwards to replace existing civil union law [5].

The advancement in same sex relationship recognition embarked a new milestone on human civilisation.
Marriage equality has undergone evolution at different times. It first began with racial segregation on
marriage and discrimination based on a couple’s skin colour. Society ignorance on minority rights to get
protection has been left alone for too long and recognition of such basic rights has long overdue. By
denying same sex couples rights to form a family, it is a form of discrimination that can’t be seen at just
on the surface level without proper reasoning and detail analysis. It is not difficult to see that, human
rights are universal, regardless of social status, ethnicity and sexual orientation of a person. It is beyond a
rigid interpretation of rules of a society that dictates what a person can enjoy and what another person of
different gender cannot.

1
The society has long imposes a favour towards a particular gender and enforces a chain of ideology that
clearly separate the roles of people in a structure. The strict interpretation of roles in a family, of example,
has diminished the possibility of a person to discover what is right and what is wrong by use of sanction
from the society values on an individual ability to explore diversity and variety to improve the quality of
life we currently have. A deny of same sex couple rights and responsibilities are a mere demand by the
authoritative society to instil its intolerance stance and restrictive philosophy while to encourage its
member to be a blind follower on everything that was set by a majority in a community without giving a
chance to any logic sense.

References:
[1] Chicago Tribune. “New Hampshire flips to Democrats: Granite State was once Rock of GOP”,
http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2007/nov/04/news/chi-nh_zuckman_bdnov04, retrieved 2009,
June 4th.

[2] Human Rights Campaign. “New Hampshire State Law”,

http://www.hrc.org/Template.cfm?Section=New_Hampshire&CONTENTID=21099&TEMPLAT
E=/TaggedPage/TaggedPageDisplay.cfm&TPLID=67, retrieved 2009, June 4th.

[3] Associated Press. “Lynch Signs Bill Legalizing Civil Unions”,

http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070531/BREAK/70531001/1030,
Concord Monitor, retrieved 2009, June 4th.

[4] New Hampshire’s State Legislature. “Chapter 58 HB437-FN-Local Final Version”,

http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2007/hb0437.html, Chapter 457-A Civil Unions,
retrieved 2009, June 4th.

[5] Reuters. “New Hampshire Legalizes Gay Marriage”,

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE5526NV20090603, retrieved 2009, June
4th.

Date: 4th June 2009