MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (Reuters) - State lawmakers approved a bill on Wednesday to make New Hampshire the sixth U.S. state to authorize gay marriage, but the legislation still requires the governor’s signature.
New Hampshire’s Democratically controlled House of Representatives endorsed gay marriage in a 198-176 vote, hours after the state Senate approved the legislation by 14-10 along party lines, making the state the fourth this year to back gay marriage in the United States.
Late last month, the House rejected a similar bill. But Senate and House members met last week to reach a compromise, approving new language giving clergy and religious institutions opposed to gay marriage greater protections, including the legal right to decline to marry same-sex couples.
Governor John Lynch, a Democrat, has said he would veto a gay-marriage bill if such protections were excluded and is expected to sign the latest bill into law.
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