Will New Hampshire undo Marriage Equality?

In Concord this morning,  the House is scheduled to vote on HB 437, the bill that would repeal the freedom to marry in New Hampshire.

The bill will likely pass today, but Governor Lynch has firmly committed to veto.

This is an excerpt of my email to my state legislators:

As a minster, it is my honor and privilege to play a particular role in the covenant of marriage: I declare, on behalf of my religious community, the presence of God in the lives of two people as they publicly commit themselves to one another. 

Like all ministers, I am not required by New Hampshire law to do this for anyone. I choose to bless marriages based on a couple's commitment to a lifelong journey together, and by their connection to our faith community. 

I proudly do this in New Hampshire, reassured that our state provides equal protection for couples under the law: the right to make personal decisions together, the right to visit and care for each other when they are sick, and the legal rights entitled to a couple by the commitment of marriage. 

Do not go back to a time where we withhold the right to love, marry, and form a family from two consenting adults based on a particular image of marriage. 

Personally, my wife Darlene and I have found our marriage renewed and strengthened by witnessing gay and lesbian couples fight so hard for the right of marriage: a right that far too many people of my generation consider old-fashioned, stifling, and easily ended by divorce. 

Undoing Marriage Equality would diminish, not strengthen, the covenant my wife and I have together. 

Two polls, including one conducted by the University of New Hampshire, have shown that New Hampshire residents of all ages, political ideologies, and regions of the state oppose efforts to repeal our marriage law. 

 
As a resident of New Hampshire concerned with the fair and equal treatment of all families in our state, I humbly ask that you to stand with the supermajority of voters around the state and oppose the repeal of marriage for gay and lesbian couples by voting NO on any version of HB 437.