Source: Newark Star-Ledger, Gay City News, PolitickerNJ.com
New Jersey should quickly enact a law to grant full marriage rights for lesbian and gay couples, says a panel created to evaluate the impact of the state's 2006 civil union law.
The New Jersey Civil Union Review Commission concluded that the state's civil unions law fails to adequately protect same-sex couples.
The panel concluded that denying same-sex couples the right to marry is as unjust as government imposing racial segregation laws against African-Americans, according to the Star-Ledger.
"Separate treatment was wrong then and it is just as wrong now," said the report, which was released this morning.
In its 79-page final report the 13-member panel says it gathered "overwhelming evidence" the civil union law not only fails to provide the same protections as marriage, it also has created economic, medical, and emotional hardships for gay couples, according to the Star Ledger.
The Legislature adopted the civil union law in response to a State Supreme Court ruling in October, 2006 mandating that New Jersey afford same-sex couples all the rights and benefits of marriage.
Establishing the commission was a significant consolation prize for Garden State Equality, New Jersey's LGBT rights lobby group, which had unsuccessfully pressed the Legislature and Democratic Governor Jon Corzine to enact a marriage equality law in response to the court ruling, Gay City News reports.
At the time, the governor and legislative leaders were not publicly antagonistic toward full marriage equality, but argued that a civil union law should first be given a chance to meet the court mandate.
The review commission decisively found that the law fell short in addressing the equality requirements of the Supreme Court ruling.
"I believe that New Jersey will be the first state in the union to enact marriage equality through legislation," Steven Goldstein, chairman of Garden State Equality, is quoted saying by Gay City News. "With this report, I believe it is more likely than ever to happen very soon."
(California's legislature twice passed marriage equality bills, but both were vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.)
Goldstein was the co-chairman of the review commission.
Asked by Gay City News if he thought it was possible that a marriage equality bill could be enacted in 2009, prior to statewide elections in New Jersey in November, Goldstein responded, "I would not preclude that possibility."
"The report is a sweeping indictment of the failure of the civil union law," Goldstein is quoted saying by the Star-Ledger. "The report asks Governor Corzine and the Legislature: Do you want equality or not? If so, there is only one way to go."
AnnLynne Benson, a Republican appointed to the Commission by Corzine and a former director of Gloucester County Right to Life, acknowledged that it "was not an easy process to reach consensus" in completing the final report, but said that the conclusions were clear.
"The civil union law was like planting a tooth pick and expecting a tree to grow," Benson told Gay City News. Noting that gay and lesbian couples have had the right to adopt for many years, she added, "It doesn't make sense for those children's parents not to have the right to be married."
Corzine could not be reached by the Star-Ledger for comment Tuesday night. He has said previously he would sign a bill legalizing same-sex marriage, but wanted to deal with the issue after the November presidential election so a possible backlash would not be exploited by conservatives for political gain.
The governor and the entire State Assembly face the voters next November, but not the State Senate, which has four-year terms that end after November 2011, according to Gay City News.
Although the Senate, which is not up for election in 2009, has only a narrow Democratic majority, in the Assembly, the party has a commanding advantage over the Republicans, Gay City News reports.
Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts (D-Camden) said, according to the Star-Ledger, that the report "should spark a renewed sense of purpose and urgency to overcoming one of society's last remaining barriers to full equality for all residents. As I have said many times before, same-sex marriage in New Jersey is only a matter of 'when,' not 'if.'"
Five of the 13 commissioners on the review commission represent state government agencies that report directly to Corzine, according to Gay City News. A sixth commissioner represents the state attorney general, Anne Milgram, a Corzine appointee herself, but one with broad statutory independence from the governor.
Of the other seven commissioners, five were appointed by the governor, and one each by the Senate president and the Assembly speaker. Goldstein was appointed by Speaker Roberts.
The examples of injustice in report are damning, according to PolickerNJ, and recall the "separate but equal" facilities for blacks and whites that were ruled constitutional by the Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896).
In her dissenting opinion in New Jersey's Supreme Court case brought by gay couples challenging for the right to marry, then-Chief Justice Deborah T. Poritz wrote: "What we name things matters, language matters...Labels set people apart surely as physical separation on a bus or in school facilities...By excluding same-sex couples from civil marriage, the State declares that it is legitimate to differentiate between their commitments and the commitments of heterosexual couples. Ultimately the message is that what same-sex couples have is not as important or as significant as 'real' marriage, that such lesser relationships cannot have the name of marriage."
Source: Commission says New Jersey should allow gay marriage | Star Ledger
Jersey State Commission Urges Marriage Equality Now | Gay City News
Separate is still not equal | PolitickerNJ.com