Both sides are pledging to continue fighting into the fall elections after the state House voted Wednesday to kill the measure.
The vote ended a push by New Hampshire's new Republican majority to rescind the 2-year-old law. Gay rights supporters say the vote resounds in a region where opponents have concentrated efforts to reverse momentum.
Several states and Washington, D.C., allow gay marriage. New Hampshire's repeal of such a law would have made it the first state to do so by a legislative act.
