From Seacoastonline:

Laws to repeal civil unions and ban gay marriage and to legalize gay marriage will be on the docket in hearings before the House Judiciary Committee Thursday.

New Hampshire Episcopal bishop Gene Robinson, a vocal gay rights leader who delivered the invocation at one the inaugural events last month for President Obama, will be one of those testifying in favor of gay marriage legalization. The legislation is sponsored by Democratic representatives Jim Splaine and Paul McEachern of Portsmouth.

If passed and signed into law by Gov. Lynch, who signed civil union legislation in 2007 but has opposed gay marriage in the past, gay marriage would go into effect on Jan. 1. It would recognize marriage as, according to the bill’s text, “the legally recognized union of two people. Any person who otherwise meets the eligibility requirements of this chapter may marry any other eligible person regardless of gender.”

The bill would also give same gender couples who entered into a civil union before the enactment of this bill the right to obtain the legal status of marriage.

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