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WMUR: Campaign Launched To Oppose Repeal Of Gay Marriage Law

Newspaper Ad Shows Supporters Of Same-Sex Marriage

CONCORD, N.H. — A man who spent decades trying to strengthen New Hampshire communities said Wednesday that repealing the state’s same-sex marriage law will rip apart the trust that holds them together.

Before retiring last year, Lew Feldstein spent nearly 25 years as president of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, the principal source of venture capital for the state’s nonprofit organizations. On Wednesday, a day ahead of House hearings on two repeal bills, he was named co-chairman of target=”_blank”>Standing Up for New Hampshire Families, a coalition of business, civic and nonprofit leaders opposed to repealing the law.

“For 25 years, we were part of an effort to build New Hampshire communities,” he said at a news conference. “The withdrawal of these rights rends this garment, it rips up just what helps hold our communities together.”

So much in New Hampshire depends on informal connections and implicit trust, he said, but those will be eroded if the Legislature strips away rights that have been granted.

“If you leave people without protection, if you say we can pass something one year and take it away the next, people sense that and you can’t build anything,” he said.

A WMUR Granite State Poll this month showed that only 29 percent of New Hampshire adults support repealing the law, compared to 62 percent who want to leave it in place.

Though House Republican Leader D.J. Bettencourt has said he will ask the Judiciary Committee to keep the repeal bills until next year, sponsors have said they will tell the committee it would be better to deal with the issue this year.

Taking both those scenarios into account, members of the new coalition said they plan a multi-year campaign against repealing the bill, though they offered no specific actions they plan to take beyond Wednesday’s news conference and a full-page newspaper ad featuring Craig Stowell, of Claremont, whose brother is gay.

In the ad and at the news conference, Stowell, a former Marine, called the repeal bills wrong and shameful, and he urged lawmakers to focus on the economy and fiscal issues.

“These are the challenges that brought Republicans to Concord. These are the problems that should be priorities. These are the tough choices that need to be addressed,” he said.

Stowell’s voice broke with emotion when he described the torment his brother endured as a teen.

“My brother is finally happy and comfortable with who he is. I’m so happy and proud of the man he has become, and no one has the right to take away his freedom to marry,” he said.

Same-sex marriage was enacted two years ago when Democrats controlled the Legislature. Democratic Gov. John Lynch, who said he opposed same-sex marriage, signed the law after lawmakers approved provisions affirming religious rights and has since repeatedly said he would veto any attempt to repeal it.