The first female dominated legislature in the country is making some kickass progressive changes.
Forget moving to Canada, let's just head for New Hampshire! Renee Loth at the Boston Globe has the glowing details:
First, the New Hampshire House of Representatives voted to raise the state's gasoline tax by 15 cents over three years. Then the House approved a bill allowing the use of medical marijuana, by a vote of 234-138. Next, it voted to repeal the state's capital punishment statute. The House wrapped up March with a vote to legalize same-sex marriage, and the Senate followed suit yesterday.
What could be causing this unprecedented turn in Granite State politics? Here's one idea: women.
Since January, the New Hampshire Senate has been making history as the first majority female legislative body in the country: Thirteen of its 24 members are women. Overall, the New Hampshire Legislature is 37.7 percent female, just a fraction behind Vermont (37.8 percent) and Colorado (38 percent). But New Hampshire also has women in leadership: a woman House speaker, a woman Senate president, and a woman majority whip. The congressional delegation is 50 percent female, including one of only 17 women in the US Senate. It's as if there was a bloodless coup of the state's political establishment in November, and women were the avatars of change.
What's the matter with New Hampshire? Nothing. They've just seen the future up there.Feminist Progressive Gender Politics News Gay LGBT Same Sex Marriage Liberal New Hampshire
