As marriage equality legislation continues to move through the Maryland house, two polls from North Carolina and Iowa find that a majority oppose denying rights to same-sex couples. That and more in today’s State Marriage Watch:

- NORTH CAROLINA: As Republicans in the state propose a constitutional amendment to ban gay unions, a new poll finds that “more than half of North Carolina residents now support legal recognition of same-sex couples, and more than one-quarter believe they should have full marriage rights.” “An Elon University survey released Monday found that only 35 percent of respondents opposed all legal recognition, down from 44 percent when the question was asked two years ago.”

– IOWA: A new poll suggests that a majority of Iowans support same-sex marriage or don’t care one way or the other. “According to the Des Moines Register, when asked whether they favored or opposed the recent Iowa Supreme Court decision that allowed gay and lesbian couples to marry in that state, 30 percent said they just don’t care much one way or the other, while 37 percent opposed or strongly opposed the court ruling and 32 percent favored it or strongly favored it.”

- MARYLAND: A House version of the marriage bill which passed the Senate on Thursday is moving through committee, with a vote expected as early as Tuesday. The full House could vote on the measure by Friday. Opponents of marriage equality are already gearing up to challenge the measure through a voter referendum in 2012, however.

- CALIFORNIA: Imperial County in California, which has stepped in to defend Proposition 8 has filed papers Friday seeking to continue to defend the law. In January, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that it could not rule on the constitutionality of the measure until the higher court confirmed the standing of the plaintiffs, which the Supreme Court is now in the process of doing. In a separate document, the court ruled that Imperial County — one of the counties that voted for Proposition 8 and claimed “direct financial interest in assuring that the vote of its residents is defended and ultimately upheld” — lacked standing to appeal the decision.

- WYOMING: The Wyoming House “adjourned without taking action on a same-sex marriage bill that had already passed the state Senate” which would prohibit the state from recognizing gay unions from out of state. House Majority Floor Leader Rep. Tom Lubnau (R) “said he didn’t want to spend hours of floor time debating a bill that didn’t have the votes to pass. The Legislature is set to adjourn next week.” A separate measure that would only recognize marriages between one man and one woman is still pending, but House and Senate haven’t agreed “whether same-sex couples who enter civil unions in other states should be allowed access to Wyoming courts to resolve issues in their relationships.”

– NEW HAMPSHIRE: New Hampshire’s House Judiciary Committee will vote on three separate same-sex marriage bills as early as tomorrow. The committee is expected to recommend holding on to the bills until next year so as to give lawmakers an opportunity to focus on fiscal issues. For highlights from the committee’s public hearing, click here.

For a complete overview of the latest developments in the marriage battleground states of Rhode Island, Maryland, New York, California, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Wyoming, Iowa, and New Mexico, click here.

Likely presidential candidate Mike Huckabee warned that expanding marriage to gays and lesbians would lead to polygamy and promised to use his Constitutional powers and the presidential bully pulpit to prohibit same-sex unions if he were elected. Huckabee made the comments during an appearance on Fox Business’ Freedom Watch with Judge Napolitano on Friday, where he also implied that same-sex couples are “dysfunctional” and should not raise children:

HUCKABEE: If we change the definition to a man or a man and a woman and a woman, why can’t we accommodate a man and two women or a woman and three men. [...]

There is a role that a father plays that is different than a role that a mother plays. The ideal relationship for a child is give them both. [...] There is a Natural Law that supersedes even Constitutional and statutory law. That Natural Law that says it is wrong, to murder, to steal.

NAPOLITANO: If you became the President of the United States would you use your bully pulpit to address this or would you use your powers under the Constitution to address this?

HUCKABEE: Well, I think that the President uses both…I would use both….if you have families that are dysfunctional, broken, and totally falling apart, that’s going to be reflected in every level of government upon which government is built.

Watch it:

Numerous studies dispute Huckabee’s unsubstantiated suggestion that kids fare worse in gay households, showing that children with same-sex parents show no significant differences compared with children in different-sex households. In fact, a recent study published in the journal Pediatrics, found that “children raised by lesbian mothers — whether the mother was partnered or single — scored very similarly to children raised by heterosexual parents on measures of development and social behavior.” The researchers also found that “children in lesbian homes scored higher than kids in straight families on some psychological measures of self-esteem and confidence, did better academically and were less likely to have behavioral problems, such as rule-breaking and aggression.”

After issuing a muted condemnation of President Obama’s decision not to defend the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) last week, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) is suggesting that he may seek to defend the law in the government’s stead. During a recent appearance on CBN’s ‘The Brody File’, Boehner assured Christian listeners that Republicans will soon decide how to proceed in upholding the Act:

BOEHNER: Now, it’s happened before where administrations have decided they weren’t going to go out and vigorously defend a law that Congress passed but I really am disappointed in the President in his actions but if the President won’t lead, if the President won’t defend DOMA then you’ll see the House of Representatives defend our actions in passing a bill that frankly passed overwhelmingly. [...]

We’ve been researching all the options that are available to us. We’ll be talking to the members in the next few days about that and I expect we’ll have a decision by the end of the week…I’d be very surprised if the House didn’t decide that they were going to defend law.”

Watch it:

Boehner’s comments align the Speaker with the most social conservative faction of the Republican party and seem to undermine the belief that “the wedge has lost its edge.” Most mainstream Republicans have stopped short of calling on the House to defend the law, but conservatives like Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, and Rep. Steve King (R-IA) have embraced the messaging of anti-gay groups like the Family Research Council, the National Organization for Marriage, the American Family Association and are calling on House Republican to push back against the President’s decision.

Santorum asked Boehner to defend DOMA in court, while Gingrich and King have both proposed “cutting the funding to the Justice Department” in response to the decision. Gingrich even went so a far as to argue that Obama is violating his “Constitutional oath.”