Gay couples celebrate new year with new law allowing civil unions
Concord, NH -
As the clock struck midnight on New Year's Eve, gay and lesbian couples gathered outside the New Hampshire Statehouse to be among the first to be joined in civil unions sanctioned by the state.
Twenty-three New Hampshire gay couples were united at a collective ceremony held on the Statehouse steps as the state's new civil union law went into effect.
New Hampshire became the fourth state - following Vermont, Connecticut and New Jersey - in the nation to allow civil unions when Democratic Gov. John Lynch signed the bill into law last year. The civil unions law gives same-sex couples the same rights, responsibilities and obligations of marriage without calling the union a marriage.
Massachusetts is the only state that allows same-sex marriage.
Twenty-three New Hampshire gay couples were united at a collective ceremony held on the Statehouse steps as the state's new civil union law went into effect.
New Hampshire became the fourth state - following Vermont, Connecticut and New Jersey - in the nation to allow civil unions when Democratic Gov. John Lynch signed the bill into law last year. The civil unions law gives same-sex couples the same rights, responsibilities and obligations of marriage without calling the union a marriage.
Massachusetts is the only state that allows same-sex marriage.
