Gays marry in N.H. at stroke of midnight

Gays marry in N.H. at stroke of midnight

About a dozen couples tied the knot in the cold weather outside the Statehouse. Others got hitched shortly after midnight in church ceremonies.

Gay couples who previously were united under New Hampshire’s civil-union law will see their unions automatically convert into marriages in 2011 unless they take action themselves before then.

The passage of the marriage law included a timed repeal of the civil-union law.

There is no residency requirement for marriage in New Hampshire but there is a 1979 law that states, ”No marriage shall be contracted in this state by a party residing and intending to continue to reside in another jurisdiction if such marriage would be void if contracted in such other jurisdiction, and every marriage contracted in this state in violation hereof shall be null and void.”

No such restriction exists in the other U.S. states where same-sex marriage is legal: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Iowa and Vermont.

Same-sex marriage also will become legal in the District of Columbia soon. On Dec. 18, Mayor Adrian Fenty signed a bill that had passed the D.C. Council 11-2. His signature sent the measure to Congress for a review period of 30 ”legislative” days. Congress is not expected to block the law’s taking effect.

Internationally, same-sex couples can marry in Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Spain, Sweden and Argentina’s Tierra del Fuego province. A law legalizing same-sex marriage in Mexico City will take effect in March.

Same-sex marriage used to be legal in California but voters amended the state constitution to re-ban it in November 2008. Same-sex marriage was legalized in Maine in 2009 but voters then ”vetoed” the governor’s signature on the law before it took effect.