COLAGE is re-posting the following Action Alert for new Hampshire from Representative Ed Butler. Please call your representatives who are in the Judiciary Committee to voice your support for legal recognition of LGBT couples.

Many of you who are receiving this know me and many do not. I am a Representative to the NH House from Carroll County in the Mount Washington Valley.

Tomorrow the Judiciary Committee will decide whether to, again, study the issues of Civil Unions (CU) and Marriage for gay and lesbian couples --- or they can support the civil union and marriage bills that they have heard during this session and send them to the House floor for an open debate and vote.

There are 8 openly gay or lesbian members of the House. Seven of us voted to follow the strategy of supporting both CU and Marriage bills. We want to get both bills to have a full hearing in the legislature. However the subcommittee of the Judiciary has decided it will be 'safer' (my word) to study the issues again -- instead of having the possibility of passing one or both bills this year.

Frankly, it is much more likely -- in fact probable -- that the Civil Union bill will pass both the House and the Senate and be sent to the Governor. And the Marriage bill also has a good chance of passing the House. But rather than have the possibility of passing Civil Unions, the subcommittee has decided that these issues should be revisited in 2008 -- after another study committee.

We have just today and tomorrow morning to call or email the representatives on the Judiciary Committee to tell them to support, at the least, Civil Unions and, better yet, both bills so the full legislature can debate the issues.

Why this last minute request? Because we thought we had support in the Judiciary subcommittee which evaporated over the past couple of days.

I urge you to call the members of the Judiciary Committee (even a message on their answering machine will have a bit more impact than an email -- but both would be great!) and tell them, in the clearest way possible, that the gay and lesbian citizens of our State should not be asked to wait another two years to have Civil Unions or Marriage for same gender couples. We've studied the issue already! We have the opportunity, this year, to bring a broad base of legal rights and protections to the gay and lesbian couples of our state. We can pass, at the least, Civil Unions with all the rights responsibilities and obligations of marriages. We all know that Marriage is what will finally give couples full equality and protections under the law. However, we have taken many steps towards equality over the past many years -- non-discrimination; hate crimes; adoption and others. Civil Unions would be a big step in the right direction.

Thank you for your help,
Representative Ed Butler
District 1, Carroll County
Home # 603.374.0911
Ed@ButlerinTheHouse.com