The Promising (And Disappointing) Marriage News Out of New Jersey
New Jersey’s State Senate Judiciary Committee will today debate whether homosexuals should be able to marry other homosexuals. It’s expected to pass, though we don’t know what “expected” means anymore. Then, by the end of the week, perhaps on Thursday, the full Senate will vote on the bill. That’s great news, except: The State Assembly must also pass its own bill, and they’ve got nothing on the docket as yet. Which they really should, if only to give New Jersey a superlative worth having: the state with the biggest population with gay marriage.
Does anyone really think we are going to get anything
but a big fat FU from the NY Senate???? I am sure that
the repugaticans in NJ are getting the same marching orders
from the conserative party that NY senators got: You vote
Yea for Gay marriage and we put up a conserative candidate
to run against you. Resulting in same results as NY #23
where the cons and rep split the vote and the dem won.
These lunatics have so much hate for the Gays they are
willing to sacrifice a seat to prevent the passage. You
want to see a possible change in the outcome? Let them
have the word “marriage” give us the same rights and
benefits in a domestic partnership law. If we keep insisting
on the stupid word “marriage” the losses will keep on
piling up…………….
My bad: Make that NJ senate……….
NJ already has a Civil Union law that “in theory” gives same-sex couples all the same rights as heterosexual couples. I’ve looked at it, and I don’t know as it could be made a whole lot stronger in terms of granting rights. Problem is, it’s just too easy for people to ignore … intentionally or not, they can make discriminatory distinctions between unions and marriage, without a whole lot in the way of consequences. So I think the word used in the law actually makes quite a bit of difference. Vermont went with domestic partnerships for quite a while, found they didn’t work that well, and now have same-sex marriage. That said, I’m not optimistic about how things will go this time around …
http://video.google.com/videos.....2125630276
You have to remember that this vote though isn’t just about a new marriage issue. The NJ Supreme Court ruled that the state had to create an institution guaranteeing all the same rights to same sex couples but left it up to the legislature to decide what to call it. This vote is the result of a committee investigation that showed that the Civil Unions were NOT equal. Even if this vote gets shot down, it could still be put to the courts yet again who, having already ruled on the issue, should ensure that marriage is legalized. Or am I wrong and that is assuming too much from the NJSC?
Ironically, gay residents have enjoyed fairly-broad State-wide gay rights and protections for years…much more than their gay brethern in either the NYC suburbs or the Philly Suburbs. Once you leave the Five Boroughs or cross City Line Avenue on the Mainline you might as well be in Alabama.
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