Some American dreams are unraveling in New Jersey. Over two thousands gay men and women have registered for civil unions since the Garden State legalized them last year, but a commemorative study show that civil unions aren’t as protective as some would like to believe:
A state commission report to be released Tuesday — the first anniversary of New Jersey’s civil union law — concludes it falls far short of a state Supreme Court order to give “same-sex couples … the same rights and benefits as heterosexual couples who choose to marry.”
“Civil union status is not clear to the general public, which creates a second-class status,” the Civil Union Review Commission says in its report.
Others give harsher assessments.
“The law is just a complete and utter failure,” said Tom Prol, a trustee of the New Jersey State Bar Association. “It’s a failed experiment in discrimination.”
We wonder what Democratic presidential contenders Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, both of whom toot their civil union supporting horn, will have to say about this one…
One particularly interesting aspect of the study explores civil unions’ detrimental effect on youth:
The panel found civil unions have “a deleterious effect” on gay and lesbian youngsters and those being raised by same-sex couples.
Lucy O’Brien came to that realization during a kitchen conversation with her 17-year-old son, Tom, who is gay. She was trying to reassure him, pointing to several gay couples they know in Montclair.
“And he said, ‘But they’re not married,'” she said. “I suddenly got it that my son is acutely aware that he’s a second-class citizen.”
Hoping to correct the legislative lapses, Senator Loretta Weinberg told the Star-Ledger she plans to propose a marriage law “within weeks”.
This certainly isn’t the first time New Jersey’s civil union laws have been criticized. A similar report highlighted flaws last November, just eight months after the allegedly equal regulations went into action. United Parcel Service – otherwise known as UPS – also caused controversy last July when they employed a federal loophole to deny an employees’ the same benefits as their straight colleagues. The company finally folded after Governor Jon Corzine twisted the political screw.
How about we take this to the next level?
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M Shane
This just sounds too confusional! It sounds like they want hetrosexuall legitimacy not rights. The story about the mother was really screwed up: by her standard, if he wants to be really first class he just wants the institution and should marry a woman or become one. If the kid ‘s going to be gay he had damned well understand that he’s going to be different; that doesn’t make him second class.
Some people get crazy when they discover that they can’t have everything or be anyone; that at some point they need to be proud of who they are.
Steve
Recall that the civil-union statute was passed a year ago after the New Jersey Supreme Court ruling that the state must grant equal rights to gay couples and straight couples. That court decided, “Although we cannot find that a fundamental right to same-sex marriage exists in this state, the unequal dispensation of rights and benefits to committed same-sex partners can no longer be tolerated under our state constitution.”
So, the state is required to provide equal rights and benefits. And, more, equal dispensation of those rights and benefits. Now, the state itself, acting through this commission, has concluded that civil unions do not provide equal rights and benefits. So the state is presently not in compliance with the previous decision of the court.
But, the state is required to comply with that decision. So, the state must now grant gay couple the same marriage rights as straight couples, or repeal all of those rights previously granted to straight couples. I don’t think they will try to tell millions of straight couples that they are no longer married. Couples who are in process of divorce might be happy, but the rest would lynch the politicians.
So, this means we can probably look for full marriage rights in NJ this summer. Some few right wingers might call for a lynching, but the vast majority of people will just let it pass.
hells kitchen guy
This is like the 4,000th study on this in NJ. Enough already – just call it marriage and get it over with!
M Shane
There is a vested interest that hegemonic males have in proving their “masculinity” in a society where men can’t do anything in particular to distinquish their sexuality (in that they have that need to prove themselves) apart from some artificial distinctions like having a name for “I like pussy”=marriage. that they are resistent to giving up. Het women have a similar need for destinction (although I doubt that it has much to do with dick), just worthyness.
I think that there are more atavistic needs that have noting to do with Rights that they want to hang onto. These are what people who are insistent on marriage want I ‘m speculating.
The respectability of the institution thaty mom and dad had.
Personally i’m really sick of everything that mom and dad had or believed in and think that
If we don’t wise up quick and find different values , we’re all as good and buried. But not traditionally.
Let staight people have what illusions they want to hang onto. Why envy something which corresponds to no place in our emotional worlds unless we want to assimilate.
M Shane
p.s. I don’t think that folks in your position realize the huge psychological risk there is in it for them. (giving same sex males marriage) Heterosexual males in the last century lost their means of proving themselves. Now in the Corporation Dominated world they can’t even compete. Sports are just for spectators. Their wives often make more money than them.