CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - A House committee that deadlocked a year
ago over legalizing gay marriage voted Tuesday against repealing
New Hampshire's five-week-old law allowing the unions.

The Judiciary Committee also voted to recommend that the House
kill a proposed constitutional amendment that defines marriage as
between one man and one woman.

The vote was 12-8 on both measures, largely along party lines
led by Democratic opposition.

Last year, the committee couldn't agree on a recommendation and
brought a bill to the House floor to legalize the unions without
one. Some supporters felt at the time that it was too soon to allow
gay marriage since the state's civil unions law was only a year
old. But after a series of votes, the House narrowly passed the
bill that became law.

Gay marriage opponents know their chance of success on such
measures in New Hampshire is slim, but they want to keep the issue
before voters in hopes Republicans will regain control of the
Statehouse from Democrats in November and succeed then in banning
gay marriage.

New Hampshire became the fifth state to legalize gay marriage on
Jan. 1, joining Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts and Vermont.
California briefly allowed gay marriage before a popular vote in
2008 banned the practice; a court ruling grandfathered in couples
who were already married. Last year, Maine lawmakers approved gay
marriage, but voters in a referendum overturned the law before it
went into effect.

New Hampshire's House Judiciary Committee members who support
gay marriage argued that gay couples had gotten married without any
detrimental effects to society.

"This bill is flawed, unjust and takes rights away," state
Rep. Robert Thompson, D-Manchester, said of the attempt to repeal
the law.

State Rep. Nancy Elliott, R-Merrimack, countered that New
Hampshire made a mistake.

State Rep. William O'Brien, a Mont Vernon Republican, said
allowing gays to marry weakened an institution meant to nurture
children.

"We've weakened it incrementally. Do we expect the sky to fall?
No," he said.

State Rep. Lucy Weber, D-Walpole, replied that families take
many forms. She said she could not see how a gay marriage weakened
a heterosexual one.

Weber also pointed out that the bill repealed gay marriage
without replacing it with the civil unions law that some gay
marriage opponents have said would be an acceptable alternative.

"The central fact of a family is the relationship, not the
gender of the people involved," added Concord Democrat Frances
Potter.

Supporters of the proposed constitutional amendment said voters
- not 424 legislators - should decide the issue. Amendment
opponents said minority rights should not be subjected to a popular
vote.

Kevin Smith, executive director of the conservative Cornerstone
Policy Research, said he was disappointed by the outcome -
particularly on the proposed constitutional amendment - but
confident that gay marriage supporters put their seats in jeopardy
with voters by their position on the issue.

Mo Baxley, executive director of the New Hampshire Freedom to
Marry Coalition, said the constitution shouldn't be amended to
enshrine discrimination.

The House could act on the recommendations next week.