By Lya Carrera
In Newsweekly Contributor
Published Newspaper: [1] In Newsweekly
Published Date: December 14, 2005, Issue 15 17

LEGISLATIVE COMMISSION REPORT PLACES EMPHASIS ON TESTIMONY FROM EX-GAYS AND ON DOCTOR WHO CALLS HOMOSEXUALITY ‘UNHEALTHY’; GAY SUPPORTERS OUTRAGED

Amid controversy, and based on evidence that gay rights supporters are questioning, a state commission recommended that the new New Hampshire Legislature ban gay marriage and civil unions, but allow minimal benefits for same-sex couples.

Among the controversial parts of the report, released on Thursday, Dec. 1, are views stating that “gays tend to be measurably more promiscuous than their straight counterparts,” “that homosexuality is unhealthy and tends to transmit disease.” It also questions the ability of same-sex couples in “their ability to raise children.” And critics claim that testimony from ex-gays is given disproportional weight.

“Their report is very homophobic with unsubstantiated claims. [It has] ignored every credible evidence,” said Mo Baxley, executive director of the New Hampshire to Freedom to Marry. “New Hampshire is fiscally conservative, but not socially conservative. The commission does not represent mainstream New Hampshire folks.”

N.H. state Rep. Maureen Mooney (R-Merrimack) does not agree. “I think that is rather harsh about our work,” said Mooney. “We as a commission worked hard to produce a very thorough and comprehensive report.”

Not only were supporters not pleased with the outcome, neither were some of the commission members. As a result, these members wrote a report of their own called the “Minority Report” to contradict the findings of the commission’s original report called the “Majority Report.” Basically, the minority’s report favors same-sex marriage while the majority’s report is against it.

The minority’s report contends that “throughout its proceedings, the majority forced the commission to plod through antiquated and demonizing debates about whether gay men and lesbians are psychologically stable, transmit disease through acts of sexual intimacy, or are biologically aberrant…. Further, by embracing the testimony of Dr. John Diggs and so-called ‘ex-gays’ on what can only be called the ‘junk science’ of so-called ‘reparative therapy’ that purports to fix gay people by making them heterosexual, the majority has exposed its deep discomfort with gay people.”

“I am very disappointed in the majority’s report. It is outrageous. It makes outrageous comments,” said N.H. state Sen. Martha Fuller Clark (D-Portsmouth), who is a commission member and one of the authors of the ‘Minority Report.’ “[It] made personal biases and prejudices, and despite all testimony that was heard it continued with biases and prejudices as the basis for their report.”

The minority’s report further states that “for the most part, the ‘evidence’ on which its conclusions rest is either absent or misrepresented. For example,… It implies that Biologist Dennis Bobilya refuted any biological basis for same-sex sexual orientation when his testimony made clear that genetics and hormonal components combine with a variety of factors to influence a person’s orientation.” The report then cites two more examples: the testimonies from Dr. Ellen Perrin, child development expert, and Historian Nancy Cott.

“That is inaccurate,” said N.H. state Rep. Tony Soltani (R-Epsom), the commission’s chairman, regarding the criticism that their evidence is either absent or misrepresented. “I personally have gone through thousands of pages of evidence, and the evidence that we relied on has been the more reliable evidence. In fact, some of the evidence that we received we dismissed it [as being] unreliable or unscientifically supported, [and that was evidence] from both sides - to be fair.”

Although the majority’s report recommends banning same-sex marriage and adding a constitutional amendment to “define marriage as the union between a man and a woman,” it also realized “that gay and lesbian citizens encounter problems or experience inconvenience as a result of not being married to the partner with home they have chosen to live with.” Thus, the commission members submitted the following proposals to solve these dilemmas: extending a patient rights to specify “who can visit him or her in the hospital,” the recognition of out-of-state parental status of gay and lesbian couples and a non-monetary reciprocal benefits agreement.

Fuller Clark thinks that [these proposals] have plans have been submitted. “Given the fact that [neighboring] New England stales are either recognizing civil unions or gay marriages, [it] challenges New Hampshire to address the legal [aspects] for [gay and lesbian couples] who pass or move to New Hampshire. [These proposals] do not address the significant issues that gays and lesbians have to deal with in terms of interface with the state.”

Even with the differences between Ihe two reports (www.nhhousegop.com), the minority’s report states “all sides agree that [the] Legislature has a vital role to play in formulating state policy on marriage in protecting the rights of New Hampshire citizens.” And the legislature will certainly have the opportunity to play a role now that both reports have been handed in to House Speaker Douglas Scamman. Although Scamman was not available for comment, Kelly Cowling, Scamman’s spokesperson, said, “He has not read the report yet, but he is glad that the commission is done. He is looking forward to the ongoing process.”

And it is a process that Fuller Clark would like it to move forward. “I hope that the Commission’s findings do not harm the gay and lesbian community,” Fuller Clark said. “We made a lot of progress in the last 30 years… and I would not want a report like this to backfire.”

On the other hand, Sollani thinks differently. “This has been the most in-depth study done by any of our states or territories,” Soltani said. “They [the other states] are watching this and now that it [the study] is released, it is going to be cited in many of the states as the authority. Now what we have done for our own state is propose to the people and propose to the Legislature several avenues of taking action.”

Mooney has similar thoughts. “I think we have given future legislators a lot of material to be used for future discussions,” Mooney said. “I hope that New Hampshire adopts Hawaii’s Reciprocal Benefits Act allowing the state’s role, in terms of distributing benefits, to be fair.”

Despite the findings in the majority’s report, it will not stop gay activists from seeking support for gay equality. “[We will] continue to work on defeating the constitutional amendment,” Baxley said. “[We will also] continue to talk to legislators, rotary clubs, and religious and community folks to make people more active and aware.”