Although it was a national story when, for the first time in history, a state legislative body attained a female majority after the November 2008 elections, the thirteen women in the New Hampshire Senate, aren't all in for equality. At least, that seems to be the case, if early reports on Blue Hampshire, a political blog, about Senatorial support for HB 436 are to be believed.

That the two Republican women intend to vote according to the party line and continue to insist that public records need to segregate marriage partners according to gender is not surprising, since the modern Republican party has taken a sharp turn away from respecting human rights. The whole notion of public officials being public servants seems not to have really sunk in. But, that Democrat Deb Reynolds thinks "the time is not right" is a great disappointment.

Of course, it's always good to be thoughtful and considerate when revolutionary concepts like human rights are the issue. So, that may account for why Democratic Senators Sgambati, DeVries, Gilmour and Larsen are still sitting on the fence.

As I've said many times, it's a mistake to think that the victims of injustice will not engage in discriminatory behavior themselves. Sometimes it's just a matter of rationalizing that "if I could overcome impediments, so can someone else."

Quite a few of the women Senators made no secret of the fact that women's issues were not a particular priority in their candidacy. But then, equality isn't a women's issue, is it. When any one of us is discriminated against, we're all affected. It's not possible to segregate even one person without segregating all the rest. That's how segregation works.

"What you do to the least of these, you do to me."