New Hampshire Republicans Dropping Gay Marriage Repeal?

Republican leaders in the New Hampshire House appear to be distancing themselves from an effort to repeal the state's gay marriage law.

According to the AP, gay marriage is noticeably absent from the House Republican agenda introduced Thursday.

Republican House Leader D.J. Bettencourt told the AP that gay marriage was not included on the agenda because lawmakers did not need to spend much time on the issue.

“If their minds aren't already made up, it's something they're intimately familiar with,” Bettencourt said of his GOP colleagues.

However, gay marriage foe the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) had last week publicized that it expected the repeal bill to come to the House floor for a vote on Wednesday, but it did not.

The previous day, Governor John Lynch reiterated his pledge to veto such a bill if it reached his desk.

House Rep. David Bates' bill would replace marriage with civil unions for any unmarried adults, including relatives, and would allow anyone to refuse to recognize such unions. If approved, New Hampshire would become the first state to legislatively overturn such a law.

An October survey found few New Hampshire voters (27%) in favor of repeal.

Roughly 2,000 gay and lesbian couples have married since the law took effect two years ago.