CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – A study commission concluded Thursday in tumultuous fashion, with the minority accusing the majority of giving no meaningful consideration to extending legal recognition to gay and lesbian couples in New Hampshire.

That happened because most commission members were lawmakers and activists opposed to gay marriage, according to a minority report by four of the 15 commission members and the one alternate member.

“We in the minority believe that the majority report evidences nearly a complete failure to address the commission’s mandate,” said the minority report, which supported gay marriage or civil unions for same-sex couples.

The majority report, first reported by The Associated Press last week, recommended against gay marriage or civil unions and recommended amending the New Hampshire Constitution to limit marriage to unions between one man and one woman.

The majority said gay marriage is not a civil rights issue, that homosexuality is a choice because no “gay gene” exists, and that more study is needed before New Hampshire allows adoption for same sex couples. Gays and lesbians can adopt in New Hampshire, but only as single parents.

The majority recommended more flexibility in hospital visitation rules for same-sex couples, however, and recognizing parental rights of out-of-state couples. And some members recommended a Hawaii-style reciprocal benefits system for spousal and next-of-kin relationships.

Created last year, the commission was ordered to study the legal implications of allowing gay marriage, civil unions or other options. During months of work, the panel collected testimony from the public and experts, including a pediatrician, psychologists, and a man who said he used to be gay but was no longer.

Along the way, commission members also scuffled over work delays, appointees to the panel and procedures.

“In part, the majority accomplished so little because the commission sought more to put gay people on trial than to consider the full scope of policy issues before it.

Throughout its proceedings, the majority forced the commission to plod through antiquated and demonizing debates about whether gay men and lesbians are psychologically stable, transmit disease through acts of sexual intimacy, or are biologically aberrant,” according to the minority report.

Clashes continued Thursday during a press conference to announce the submission of the reports to the governor and Legislature when alternate member Steve Vaillancourt, R-Manchester, grabbed the microphone and lambasted the majority.

Rep. Tony Soltani, R-Epsom, the chairman, quickly struck back.

“I was disappointed by the minority report … the minority report attacks the individual members of the majority,” Soltani said. “I would be embarrassed to submit that,” he said.

Soltani also accused this reporter of bias and misquoting him and others in earlier stories. He gave no specifics. Joe Magruder, the AP’s news editor in Concord, said the coverage has been fair and accurate.

In addition to Vaillancourt, the alternate, the minority consisted of state Sen. Martha Fuller Clark, D-Portsmouth, Rep. James MacKay, R-Concord, former Rep. Raymond Buckley, a Democrat, and public appointee Ed Butler, a board member of New Hampshire Freedom to Marry.

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On the Net:

http://www.nhhousegop.com/Reports/legislative-reports.htm