(I have modified my original post)
Not only did New Hampshire voters in Plainfield not approve the homophobic article, but, by a vote of 185-40, they amended it to instruct the Selectboard to write a letter to the governor and state legislators "...commending them for passing and signing into law legislation affirming marriage equality for all New Hampshire residents."
Pam's House Blend:: New Hampshire town *crushes* anti-marriage equality article
It was summed up best by a mother who has a gay daughter:
"Gay and lesbian people suffer not because of who they are but because of who we are."
Republicans, conservatives, and Libertarians' new strategy is to cloak the Religious Right by trying to change the anti-gay argument from one of morality to one of democracy. Reactionaries are now trying to assert that citizens should have the right to vote on the definition of marriage. But moving the argumentative boxes around does not change the fact that anti same-sex marriage attitudes are bigoted, discriminatory, and just plain wrong, as well as clearly violating the US Constitution's Equal Protection Clause.
Another new strategy now being used by anti-gay people is to tell the bold-faced lie, a huge one, that marriage equality is not protected by the US Constitution. "Voters' rights," that's what we always hear it's about; "the voters should decide," "the people have a right to vote on this and that," etc. I never thought that even in the U.S. we'd see such open appeals to mob rule. Of course, these people would never demand a public, bare-majority vote on their own rights, which at the very least suggests that the "voters' rights" talking point serves mostly as rhetorical cover, like most variations on the "gay panic" defense. The gay panic defense is about providing the homophobic jury with enough cover to make a jury nullification decision, with the "voters' rights" argument. It is really about throwing up roadblocks for any move towards inclusion of a group they don't like. That's the bottom line; the rest is obfuscation to maintain the persecution against an historically suspect class: the LGBT Americans.
Edward