Alton rep proposes bill that would get State of New Hampshire out of the marriage business

CONCORD — Republican lawmakers announced they would defer debate on gay marriage until next year, but that may be too late since a bill introduced by Representative Peter Bolster of Alton would do away with civil marriage altogether in favor of "domestic unions" without respect to gender.

"Marriage is not the state's to give or take away," Bolster said. "This bill is giving marriage back to the individual."

House Bill 569 would replace "marriage" with "domestic union." Beginning on January 1, 2012 no new marriages would be conducted and parties to all past marriages — gay or straight, one day or 50 years — would would invited to apply for a domestic union certificate. Couples who fail to convert their marriage to a domestic union by January 1, 2013 would find it converted for them.

Other than parents and their children, any two people of the age of consent — "without consideration of their gender — can enter a legally binding domestic union contract that commits them to "mutual responsibilities and obligations." Among the purposes of the bill is to "reserve and establish marriage as a supremely cultural and individual right apart from government definition while providing state recognition and regulation of domestic unions for the purpose pf providing legal order in society and protection for families and couples under the law."

"My bill ensures everyone of equity under the law," Bolster said.

Domestic unions would be the legal equivalent of marriage and civil unions under federal law and the laws of other states and civil unions recognized in other states would be recognized as domestic unions in New Hampshire. Each party to a domestic union would enjoy all the statutory rights, benefits, protections and obligations, which are currently accorded to partners in a marriage. Parties to domestic unions would be entitled to specify the terms and conditions of their relationship just as a couple entering an antenuptial agreement. Domestic unions would be dissolved, like marriages, by the superior court.

Bolster stressed that "a couple can have anybody solemnize their marriage and that can be added to the record of their domestic union." But, he insisted, the "spiritual" aspect of marriage, the traditional preserve of churches, must be distinguished from its secular aspect, expressed as a contract, which is the proper role of the state.

Bolster acknowledged that the bill is designed to finesse the gay marriage issue, which he said divides not only the two parties but also the Republican majority in the Legislature. He doubted that an effort to repeal the statute authorizing same sex marriages adopted last year will succeed. "The libertarian Republicans will not vote for repeal and without them there will probably not be enough votes to override a veto of a bill to repeal," he said.