New Hampshire House of Representatives votes rejecting HR1590-FN, a bill that would repeal the freedom to marry, and CACR 28, a resolution seeking to amend the state constitution to restrict marriage

The House voted 210-109 to kill the bill - almost the same margin it defeated a proposed constitutional amendment about an hour earlier that would have defined marriage as between one man and one woman.

Supporters needed 60 percent of the House to place the amendment on the November ballot. Anti-marriage equality activists vowed to give voters the chance to repeal equality in the fall election by changing the Statehouse back to Republican control. Equality supporters said they would not be politically blackmailed.

Evan Wolfson, Executive Director of the national marriage equality group Freedom to Marry, called today's action:

"...A clear signal of their continued support for the freedom to marry, rejecting attempts to strip marriage away from committed couples who happen to be gay. The New Hampshire votes followed a similar stand by legislators in Iowa last week. Iowa and New Hampshire's refusal to take the freedom to marry away underscored the lesson learned in Massachusetts, Vermont, and Connecticut: including same-sex committed couples in marriage helps families and harms no one. As same-sex couples continue to marry and the sky doesn't fall in the nation's two first presidential-primary states, Americans will have more chances to think anew about the importance of treating others as we all would want to be treated, and to ask our elected officials whether they, too, support equal justice under the law." —Staff