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Written by Lisa Neff, Staff writer
Jul 14, 2011
Seven couples – and some of their kids – are suing for marriage equality in New Jersey. Lambda Legal, maintaining that equality shouldn’t stop at the Lincoln Tunnel – filed the case just days after neighboring New York State passed legislation allowing same-sex couples to marry beginning July 24.
New Jersey lawmakers passed civil union legislation four years ago in response to a 2006 state Supreme Court ruling. The ruling instructed the Legislature to extend same-sex couples the same protections and benefits as married heterosexual couples.
Lambda, in the brief filed in late June, said New Jersey’s civil unions law did not – and cannot – resolve the inequities.
“By now, everybody in New Jersey knows that civil unions don’t work,” said Steven Goldstein of Garden State Equality, a statewide LGBT civil rights group. “Since civil unions became law in New Jersey, Garden State Equality has received reports from a multitude of civil union couples who have told us their employers refuse to provide equal rights and benefits the civil union law mandates. It’s time for the courts to fix this mess and give full marriage equality to New Jersey’s same-sex couples and their children.”
Lambda, in its brief, argued that without marriage equality, same-sex couples are denied workplace benefits, barred from being with spouses in medical emergencies and deprived of dignity as a family and certainty in legal status.
“New Jersey’s same-sex couples have been stuck in a limbo caused by the confusion and indignity of living with an inferior status,” said Lamba legal director Hayley Gorenberg.
The plaintiffs in Lambda’s case include Garden State Equality, which has about 82,000 members.
Two years ago, marriage equality advocates came close to enacting a bill in New Jersey. The measure had momentum through 2009, but fell short in 2010 as Republican Gov. Chris Christie took office.
Seven other states have civil unions legislation, while six states and the District of Columbia have marriage equality laws.
