CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – The state’s same-sex marriage panel will recommend that New Hampshire’s same-sex couples be denied legal status, and be allowed only a minimum of the benefits available to married heterosexual couples, according to a draft report obtained by The Associated Press.

Representing the commission’s conservative majority, the draft concludes that same-sex marriage is not a right, because homosexuality is a choice, not a genetic predisposition. The report’s authors also said the absence of any mention of same-sex marriage in New Hampshire’s history weakened proponents’ arguments for it.

“Same-sex marriage has never been considered either a fundamental right or an essential element of society’s fabric so as to constitute an essential liberty in New Hampshire history,” the draft reads.

During months of commission hearings, proponents of same-sex marriage said the legal glue of marriage offered more security to same-sex couples and their children than a patchwork of contracts – durable power of attorneys, wills and the like – ever could.

But their pleas appear not to have convinced the panel’s majority, many of whom were sponsors or vocal supporters of a 2004 bill banning same-sex marriage. The final version of the report, which is undergoing minor revisions, is to be released to the Legislature on Dec. 1.

“The commission in the present situation can only suggest that rights that are contractual in nature be explored individually. To do so need not require that same gender sexual relations be recognized,” the report states.

The commission was created last year to examine all legal aspects of same-sex marriage and civil unions, in New Hampshire. It did much more, however, debating not only the nature of homosexuality but also linking the issue to religion, particularly Christianity.

Same-sex marriage currently is banned in New Hampshire.

The report’s authors, representing the majority views of Sen. Jack Barnes, Reps. Paul Brassard, Tony Soltani, Maureen Mooney, public member Jack Fredyma and former state Sen. Russell Prescott, acknowledge that it’s up to elected officials and the public to decide how same-sex couples should be treated in New Hampshire. But they say same-sex marriage is not a civil rights issue, and has no similarity to the fight to legalize interracial marriage nearly 30 years ago.

“Race unlike sexual orientation is … immutable and an innate characteristic and not something that is acquired and changeable,” reads the draft report.