Prior to signing the state’s same-sex marriage law last year, New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch said several times that he believed the legal definition of marriage should reflect the time-honored concept of a union between a man and a woman. But in May of this year, Lynch, a Democrat now seeking a fourth two-year term as governor, traveled to Chicago to be a guest speaker at a conference sponsored by a network of wealthy donors looking to back candidates who support same-sex marriage and other issues on the homosexual agenda.
The Concord Monitor over the weekend reported that Lynch spoke at the annual meeting of Political Outgiving, a "gay" network that supports legislative and gubernatorial candidates who are in sympathy with its stand on social and political issues. Cornerstone Action, a political committee that went all out last year in an effort to defeat the same-sex marriage bill, seized on the news and denounced Lynch for hypocrisy, noting that in April of this year Lynch bitterly denounced a "Lynch lies" ad campaign by the National Organization for Marriage and called on New Jersey-based NOM to butt out of New Hampshire elections.
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"Now he flies to Chicago to meet with out-of-state wealthy gay donors … presumably to tell them what a champion he is of their cause," Cornerstone Action said in an e-mailed statement Monday morning. "Is there any doubt now that Governor Lynch is beholden to the radical gay lobby outside of New Hampshire?" The political action committee announced it would file a request with the Governor’s office under the state’s Right to Know law for all files and records of correspondence between the Governor and his staff and anyone from the Gill Foundation. The Gill Action Fund organized the Political Outgiving Conference. The fund was started in 2005 by Tim Gill, identified in the Monitor as "a gay philanthropist and multimillionaire who founded the computer software company Quark." Cornerstone is also urging New Hampshire residents to call the Governor’s office in Concord "and tell him how hypocritical it is for him to denounce the involvement of NOM in NH one month, only to fly out to Chicago one month later to meet with the nation’s wealthiest gay donors!"
Conference organizers invited Lynch to the two-day conference to deliver a luncheon address. He spoke on other issues besides same-sex marriage, including abortion rights and the environment, his campaign manager, Pam Walsh, told the Monitor. She said it was the first time he attended the conference and that he paid his own expenses.
The Monitor noted that Lynch has kept a low profile on last year’s marriage legislation in this election year, making no mention of it in his State of the State address nor on his campaign website, where a section labeled "Civil Rights" does note his signing three years ago of a bill granting legal status to civil unions between same-sex couples. Kevin Smith, executive director of Cornerstone Action, vowed last year that Lynch and the legislators who supported the same-sex marriage bill would pay for it at the polls this year, and it seems likely the measure will get at least some attention in the fall campaign. Republican John Stephen, a former commissioner of the states’ department of Health and Human Services and the apparent frontrunner for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, is already on record as favoring repeal of the act.
Photo New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch: AP Images
