Picking up steam....
New Hampshire lawmakers will vote next week on two LGBT rights bills - one that would allow same-sex couples to marry and one extending the state’s human rights laws to include protections for transpeople.
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A coalition of clergy members who support gay marriage in Maine attempted to persuade lawmakers at a meeting Tuesday, the day the Senate referred the bill to a committee.
If it passes as currently written, Sen. Dennis Damon's bill would repeal a law that limits marriage to one man and one woman and replace it with one that authorizes marriage between any two people.
It also says Maine would recognize marriage between two people of the same gender in another state where such marriages are valid.
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The debate over gay marriage in Vermont intensified Wednesday when more than 500 people came to the State House in Montpelier for an emotional public hearing.
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US dictionary-maker Merriam-Webster has redefined the word 'marriage' to include gays and lesbians.
The definition of the word now says: "The state of being united to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife in a consensual and contractual relationship recognised by law," but adds the term also applies to "the state of being united to a person of the same sex in a relationship like that of a traditional marriage".
The company said it had introduced the change in 2003, before gay marriage was allowed in any state, but said no one had noticed the change until conservative website World Net Daily reported it this week.
