New Hampshire Governor John Lynch signs Civil Unions Into Law

Today it became official as Gov. Lynch signed civil unions into law. They will begin on Jan. 01, 2008.

From the New Hampshire Union Leader:

CONCORD – New Hampshire became the fourth state to legalize civil unions today, as Gov. John Lynch signed the bill, calling it “the New Hampshire way.”

As more than 100 supporters gathered in the Executive Council chambers of the State House, Lynch said, “Dating back to the abolitionist movement, we in New Hampshire have had a long and a proud history in taking the lead in opposing discrimination.

“Today,” he said, “that tradition continues.

Lynch signed the bill, declaring, “This bill is now law,” and handed his pen to Rep. James Splaine, D-Portsmouth, the bill’s chief sponsor.

“I’ve listened and I heard all the arguments,” said Lynch. “I do not believe that this bill threatens marriage. I believe that this is a matter of conscience and of fairness. It is never too soon to act to prevent discrimination.”

Starting tomorrow, actually it’s been going on for a while, there will be letters to the Union Leader saying the citizens should vote in this issue. That is not the issue I have however, as I believe New Hampshire voters already voted on civil unions last November. You can read this to see why I feel this way.

My issue is this, Governor Lynch would not come out before the election last November and say whether he was for or against civil unions. This was not the only issue he would not take a side on before the election. In the interest of protecting his high approval rating he would only give his positions on issues that had wide support of the people. Any tough issue he would carefully talk around his position. It worked.

The latest example of this is the mandatory seatbelt bill, he would not say whether he would sign it or not.

Gov. John Lynch had not given his opinion of the bill, and the Senate vote today saved him from being forced to do so, at least for now.

Luckily for him, that bill was killed in the senate today, we may never know where he stands on that issue. One less decision he had to make.

This is what you get when you elect someone who won’t tell you where he stands on tough issues. You wanted this state government, you got it.