Children's Alliance opposes prohibiting legal recognition of same-gender marriages

April 7, 2004

NH House Judiciary Committee hearing on Senate Bill 427

Testimony of Steve Varnum, Public Policy Director, Children's Alliance of New Hampshire

All children need the same basic things -- no matter what kind of family they're in.

They need to be kept safe. They need good teachers and mentors. They need food in their bellies and clothes on their bodies. They need access to medical care. They need love and security.

You folks in the legislature spend a lot of time trying dealing with the consequences of children not getting what they need. You know our hospitals, prisons and court systems are full of them.

You know, as we do, that children do best in healthy, stable, secure families. And five years ago, when New Hampshire decided to let gays and lesbians adopt children, we as a state acknowledged that they could provide those families.

Many of the couples we're discussing today, couples whose unions have been legally recognized elsewhere before they move to New Hampshire, will arrive with children from previous marriages or whom they have adopted. Those children need and deserve the very same benefits and protections that wise lawmakers through the years have granted to children of heterosexual married couples.

Senate Bill 427 would refuse to acknowledge the legality of these relationships.

It would deny children and parents many of these benefits and protections, including access to health insurance, inheritance rights, Social Security survivor benefits, and the protection of divorce, custody and child support laws, to name just a few.

It would destabilize established and committed relationships.

As a society and as a state, we can't afford any legislation that weakens family relationships. For the sake of children in all kinds of loving, stable homes, please vote SB 427 Inexpedient To Legislate

Note: SB 427 passed the NH Senate and House and was signed into law by Gov. Craig Benson and became effective May 14, 2004.

Read the chaptered final version of the law (Chapter 100)