by Rex Wockner
New Hampshire state Rep. Jim Splaine plans to introduce a bill next year to legalize same-sex marriage.
New Hampshire already has a comprehensive same-sex civil-union law, and nearby Connecticut and Massachusetts allow gay couples to marry.
Splaine told the Concord Monitor newspaper that the civil-union law bestows only about 90 percent of the state-level benefits and obligations of marriage, which leaves same-sex couples without full equality under the law.
Some 600 same-sex couples have entered into a civil union in New Hampshire.
