NJ Gay Marriage Battle Back In Court

From Philly.com:

N.J. – The gay couples who sued New Jersey for the right to marry once before are heading back to court.

Six couples plan to file a motion Thursday claiming that the state is still discriminating against them even though it offers civil unions to same-sex couples.

A suit from the couples, plus one other, resulted in a 2006 state Supreme Court decision that came one vote short of requiring the state to legalize gay matrimony then.

After an effort to get lawmakers to legalize it fizzled out this year, the couples and lawyers from Lambda Legal are heading back to court.

The seventh couple isn’t part of the motion because one of the partners died.

Opponents say there’s no constitutional right for gay couples to wed.

New Jersey Gay Marriage Vote Will Happen!!

In a shocking release just moments ago, New Jersey Senate President Richard Codey announced that he will push the New Jersey Gay Marriage Vote to this Thursday, the 7th.

This is a huge boon to equal marriage supporters, if passed it still falls under current NJ Governor Corzine who has pledged to sign the bill into law. From http://www.nj.com:

“Given the intensely personal nature of this issue, I think the people of this state deserve the right to a formal debate on the Senate floor,” said Codey, in a statement.

Many legislators have refused to say publicly where they stand on the matter and how they would vote. Legislators who are in favor of the measure have said support for the bill won’t be known until the votes are tallied.

Time Running Out For NJ Gay Marriage

Time is running out for Gay Marriage in New Jersey. With only a few days left before an Anti-Human Rights Conservative takes over as Governor.

NJ Governor Jon Corzine

Say what you want about Governor Jon Corzine, but he has his head screwed on right when it comes to LGBT rights. He’s promised to sign LGBT marriage into law if the New Jersey state senate passes the law before he leaves office on January 19th. Unfortunately, that vote was supposed to take place back in December. It’s been postponed and postponed by the extremist right who are bowing to pressure from the small handful of religious leaders in the state who are opposed to equal treatment.

Early in 2009, Corzine organized a bipartisan legislative/citizen panel to review the state’s current laws which allow for civil unions among gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered residents to decide if equal protections were being provided. The panel came back with a unanimous vote saying, “No,” civil unions are not the equivelant of marriage. Since then, NJ Legislators have gained huge support in passing equal marriage into law.

But in the November election, Governor Corzine was ousted by Republican Chris Christie. Christie has promised to veto any bill allowing gay marriage that comes to his desk. This gave the remaining far-righters in the Senate the out they needed, all they have to do is delay the vote until Jan 19th and the problem will go away.

Governor-elect Chris Christie

A group of 150 religious leaders in the state sent a massive petition to the Legislature this past week, asking the Senate to vote for the bill now. But with time running out, the clock may be ticking down the last hope of equality in the state for the next several years.

NJ Governor Says, “Gay Marriage Now”

NJ Governor Jon Corzine

New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine pushed the topic of marriage equality to the side in recent months, saying that he didn’t want it to distract voters from the presidential race. But now that the November elections have concluded, his position is that the NJ legislature should handle the topic, “sooner, rather than later” and has promised to sign a same-sex marriage bill into law if it makes it to his desk.

But as usual, there are some major obstacles standing in the way. The Governor and the entire Assembly are up for re-election this November, which invariably causes reluctance for any elected official to get involved on such a polarizing issue.

Last month, a 13 panel member commission determined that the civil unions that NJ currently affords same-sex couples does not create equality. It cited several incidences where hospitals were reluctant to recognize civil unions when it came to visitation, and employers didn’t offer health benefits to couples with only civil unions. They also made strong comparison to the racial segregation laws that held back the countries African-American community.

New Jersey Commission says YES to Gay Marriage

The New Jersey Civil Union Review Commission has announced that New Jersey Legislators should pass a law allowing same-sex couples to marry, stating that “This commission finds that the separate categorization established by the Civil Union Act invites and encourages unequal treatment of same-sex couples and their children.”

Surprisingly, the commission reached this decision unanimously, although (despite claims to the contrary) the members are varied politically. The AP reported that, “Six of the 13 members are members of the Corzine administration, which Steven Goldstein (vice-chair of the commission) points out went to court in 2006 to oppose gay marriage. The other seven are members of the public, including one Goldstein described as a “pro-life Republican,” AnnLynne Benson of Clementon.”  

This is a landmark decision as it could encourage the NJ senate to pass a law allowing same-sex marriage, wheras up to this point all states which have allowed gay marriage (MASS, CT, CA)  have done so resulting from court decisions.

The commission reported that it did not make the decision lightly, but gathered a high amount of public opinions through several public hearings on the matter. Roughly 150 people spoke over several months to the commission, and of those the commission reports that only 10 were opposed to gay marriage.

The most hardcore Republican on the commission, Annlynne Benson (pro-life and everything) told the AP that her views on gay people have evolved over the past 15 years as she’s gotten to know more of them. This should be a BIG HINT to the rest of the nation!  Talking to your neighbors and your community is an important thing! The more people know about you, your political views, and even your sexual orientation, the less and less the issue is removed from their minds, and the easier it is to show people how important equality is.