LGBT rights in New Hampshire
Encyclopedia
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons in the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 state of New Hampshire only just recently have the same legal rights as non-LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...

 residents. Same-sex sexual activity is legal in New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...

, and the state has offered civil unions since 1 January 2008. Civil unions offer the same protections in-state as marriages, but not the federal benefits of marriage
Rights and responsibilities of marriages in the United States
According to the United States Government Accountability Office , there are 1,138 statutory provisions in which marital status is a factor in determining benefits, rights, and privileges...

. Same-sex marriage in New Hampshire has been legally allowed since 1 January 2010. Civil unions expired and all civil unions were converted to marriage on 1 January 2011.

Law regarding same-sex sexual activity

Legislation against sodomy
Sodomy
Sodomy is an anal or other copulation-like act, especially between male persons or between a man and animal, and one who practices sodomy is a "sodomite"...

 was repealed in June 1975 along with other reforms. The age of consent
Age of consent
While the phrase age of consent typically does not appear in legal statutes, when used in relation to sexual activity, the age of consent is the minimum age at which a person is considered to be legally competent to consent to sexual acts. The European Union calls it the legal age for sexual...

 in New Hampshire is set at 16, regardless of sexual orientation
Sexual orientation
Sexual orientation describes a pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to the opposite sex, the same sex, both, or neither, and the genders that accompany them. By the convention of organized researchers, these attractions are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality,...

 or gender
Gender
Gender is a range of characteristics used to distinguish between males and females, particularly in the cases of men and women and the masculine and feminine attributes assigned to them. Depending on the context, the discriminating characteristics vary from sex to social role to gender identity...

. The age of consent is 18 for relationships in which one party is under the care, guardianship or authority of the other.

Recognition of same-sex relationships

Same-sex marriage in New Hampshire has been legally allowed since January 1, 2010. Civil unions expired and all civil unions were converted to marriage on January 1, 2011.

Civil unions

Civil unions were only available to same-sex couples in New Hampshire. On April 4, 2007, the NH House passed a civil union
Civil union
A civil union, also referred to as a civil partnership, is a legally recognized form of partnership similar to marriage. Beginning with Denmark in 1989, civil unions under one name or another have been established by law in many developed countries in order to provide same-sex couples rights,...

s bill HB437 with a vote of 243 to 129 which, if the bill were made law, would imbue partners in same-sex civil unions with the same "rights, responsibilities and obligations" as heterosexual couples in marriages. On April 26, 2007, the NH State Senate approved the civil unions bill 14-10 along political party
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...

 lines.

NH Governor John Lynch, who opposes same-sex marriage but indicated that he was receptive to discussing civil unions as a means of granting certain rights to same-sex couples, signed the bill into law on May 31, 2007, making New Hampshire "...the first state to embrace same-sex unions without a court order or the threat of one." The law has been in effect since January 1, 2008.

As of mid-May 2008, over 300 same-sex couples have formed a New Hampshire civil union.

Same-sex marriage

Since January 1, 2010, New Hampshire allows same-sex couples to marry.

However the law sets age minimums for participants in same-sex marriages that are different from those for different-sex marriage:

History on civil union and marriage legislation

On the 1 July 1987 both same-sex marriages and incest marriages became legally banned by adding "or any other male" in 457:1 Marriages Prohibited; Men and "or any other female" in 457:2 Marriages Prohibited; Women which was added to the following provisions within New Hampshire statutes called TITLE XLIII DOMESTIC RELATIONS CHAPTER 457 MARRIAGES Relationship

Since January 1, 2008, state law recognized same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions as civil unions, provided that the relationship does not violate the prohibitions of New Hampshire's civil unions law.

On March 18, 2009, the New Hampshire House of Representatives
New Hampshire House of Representatives
The New Hampshire House of Representatives is the lower house in the New Hampshire General Court. The House of Representatives consists of 400 members coming from 103 districts across the state, created from divisions of the state's counties. On average, each legislator represents about 3,300...

 Judiciary Committee voted in a deadlocked vote 10-10 to send a same-sex marriage bill to the floor of the state's House of Representatives. The tied committee vote automatically stipulated a vote on the bill before the full House, but the Committee was not permitted to issue a recommendation on the bill as a result.

On March 26, 2009, the New Hampshire House of Representatives
New Hampshire House of Representatives
The New Hampshire House of Representatives is the lower house in the New Hampshire General Court. The House of Representatives consists of 400 members coming from 103 districts across the state, created from divisions of the state's counties. On average, each legislator represents about 3,300...

 approved a same sex marriage bill. In the first vote the bill was failed on a 182-183 vote, but after the first vote, several representatives changed their minds under a motion to reconsider, and the bill passed 186-179.

On April 23, 2009, the New Hampshire Senate
New Hampshire Senate
The New Hampshire Senate has been meeting since 1784. It is the upper house of the New Hampshire General Court. It consists of 24 members representing Senate districts based on population...

 Judiciary Committee by a vote of 3-2 recommended that the full senate defeat the bill.

On April 29, 2009, the Senate approved an amended version of the bill 13-11.

On May 14, 2009, Governor John Lynch said he would sign the same-sex marriage bill with some minor adjustments to the bill that do not require religious groups to perform same-sex marriage ceremonies.

On June 3, 2009, these adjustments were passed by the House and Senate as part of a companion bill, and the Governor signed the legislation into law shortly thereafter.

A UCLA study estimates the impact of allowing same-sex couples to marry on New Hampshire’s state budget. The study concludes that allowing same-sex couples to marry will result in a net gain of approximately $500,000 each year for the State. This net impact will be the result of savings in expenditures on state means-tested public benefits programs and an increase in meals and room tax revenues from increased wedding-related tourism.

Adoption and family planning

New Hampshire law allows a person, regardless of actual or perceived sexual orientation, to adopt
Adoption
Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the original parent or parents...

. A law banning adoptions by gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....

 parents was repealed in 1999.

A 1987 state Supreme Court
New Hampshire Supreme Court
The New Hampshire Supreme Court is the supreme court of the U. S. state of New Hampshire and sole appellate court of the state. The Supreme Court is seated in the state capital, Concord. The Court is composed of a Chief Justice and four Associate Justices appointed by the Governor and Executive...

 ruling by Justice David Souter stated that adoption laws are designed to give children one home "that is unified and stable." Judicial interpretations of this ruling and state laws have varied from county to county. Since 1999, all of New Hampshire's ten counties allow adoption provided the adoptive couple or individual is stable and can care for children. A complete criminal record check is required.

New Hampshire law allows any woman to undergo donor insemination
Artificial insemination
Artificial insemination, or AI, is the process by which sperm is placed into the reproductive tract of a female for the purpose of impregnating the female by using means other than sexual intercourse or natural insemination...

. State law allows both married couples and those in civil unions
Civil unions in New Hampshire
Same-sex marriage became legal in the U.S. state of New Hampshire on January 1, 2010, replacing civil unions. On January 1, 2011, all civil unions in the state became marriages unless otherwise dissolved, annulled or previously converted to marriage.On January 1, 2008, civil unions became legal in...

 to enter into contractual agreements regarding surrogacy
Surrogacy
Surrogacy is an arrangement in which a woman carries and delivers a child for another couple or person. This woman may be the child's genetic mother , or she may carry the pregnancy to delivery after having an embryo, to which she has no genetic relationship whatsoever, transferred to her uterus...

, if all contracting parties are at least 21 years of age and follow the rules set forth in the state statutes.

Discrimination protections

Since 1998, New Hampshire law protects individuals from discrimination
Discrimination
Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...

 based only on sexual orientation in:
  • Accommodations
  • Housing
  • Both private and public employment


There no laws prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity
Gender identity
A gender identity is the way in which an individual self-identifies with a gender category, for example, as being either a man or a woman, or in some cases being neither, which can be distinct from biological sex. Basic gender identity is usually formed by age three and is extremely difficult to...

. In 2009, House Bill 415 to add "gender identity" to the statute's categories passed the House by a vote of 188-187, but failed in the Senate three weeks later by a vote of 24-0.

Hate crimes laws

Since 2002, New Hampshire law covers hate crime
Hate crime
In crime and law, hate crimes occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her perceived membership in a certain social group, usually defined by racial group, religion, sexual orientation, disability, class, ethnicity, nationality, age, gender, gender identity, social status or...

s based only on sexual orientation
Sexual orientation
Sexual orientation describes a pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to the opposite sex, the same sex, both, or neither, and the genders that accompany them. By the convention of organized researchers, these attractions are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality,...

 http://www.hrc.org/documents/hate_crime_laws.pdf where sexual orientation is addressed in state statutes as "having or being perceived as having an orientation for heterosexuality, bisexuality or homosexuality." There are currently no laws prohibiting hate crimes on an individuals gender identity
Gender identity
A gender identity is the way in which an individual self-identifies with a gender category, for example, as being either a man or a woman, or in some cases being neither, which can be distinct from biological sex. Basic gender identity is usually formed by age three and is extremely difficult to...

.

Gender identity/expression

Under New Hampshire law, individuals who have undergone sex reassignment surgery
Sex reassignment surgery
Sex reassignment surgery is a term for the surgical procedures by which a person's physical appearance and function of their existing sexual characteristics are altered to resemble...

 will be issued new birth certificate
Birth certificate
A birth certificate is a vital record that documents the birth of a child. The term "birth certificate" can refer to either the original document certifying the circumstances of the birth or to a certified copy of or representation of the ensuing registration of that birth...

s.

See also

  • Politics of New Hampshire
    Politics of New Hampshire
    New Hampshire has had an unusual tax base over the years. Unlike most states, there is no sales tax. Like most states, it has been forced by the courts to equalize taxes for uniform support of schools in all areas of the state.-Taxation controversies:...

  • LGBT rights in the United States

External links

  • New Hampshire State Laws regarding LGBT rights by Human Rights Campaign
    Human Rights Campaign
    The Human Rights Campaign is the United States' largest LGBT advocacy group and lobbying organization; according to the HRC, it has more than one million members and supporters...

  • State drops fight over benefits for same-sex couples in Concord Monitor
    Concord Monitor
    The Concord Monitor is the daily newspaper for Concord, the state capital of New Hampshire. It also covers substantial portions of surrounding Merrimack and Belknap counties in New Hampshire's Lakes Region...

    on 8 May 2007.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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