I don?t think government should be involved in marriage at all. That should be between consenting adults and a religious institution, if applicable. Legal partnerships can be formed through a lawyer, if necessary. There?s really no reason to get the state involved at all, but they love to stick their noses where they don?t belong ? in this case, gay marriage.

That being said, I wish those who lobbied for gay rights also did the same for economic rights.

For a purely logical stand, banning divorce goes a lot further in protecting the "sanctity of marriage" than prohibiting people who wish to marry from marrying.

But when did logic have anything to do with this debate?

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On that we can agree. I just think it actually is important to recognize that we aren't starting from square one in NJ, that we have come a very long way in a very short time, that same-sex couples and families are protected in NJ, and that our Courts and Legislators have done some things already which we should be proud of. It's not perfect at present, nor will it be perfect after marriage equality passes, given the difficulties in cross-state issues (employment, travel, health care policies) and lack of federal recognition.

I say all the haters in legislatures across the country should also vote to ban divorce! What do you all think?

excuse me, what i really meant was be the next state to take further action to extend equality, as in be the next state to make positive change, not add to the list of setbacks.

i was not talking about the details of their laws vs. ours, just recent news.

Nothing is the same as marriage until the "other" is recognized by all states and by the federal government. So let's just make it marriage and be done with it.

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To actually put it correctly, we would not be "following" Washington State, as it was they who followed NJ. New Jersey's Civil Unions law was passed and went into effect in 2007, which confers all rights and responsibilities of civil marriage to same sex partners entering into civil unions. It is essentially everything-but-marriage, as is the law that recently passed and was affirmed by referendum in Washington State, which elected to call same-sex relationships "domestic partnerships" instead of civil unions.

I would like to see marriage equality pass in NJ, and I agree with the arguments that separate-but-equal policies do not confer equal rights. But suggesting that NJ is somehow behind Washington State or DC is inaccurate, and does a disservice to the NJ Supreme Court and State Legislators who pushed this state further and sooner than those two places. Neither the DC law nor the Washington State laws are full marriage equality, nor are they in any way "superior" to the status quo in NJ.

Knowledge is power.

christie is a total phony. if he was serious about NJ's economy he would support marriage equality.

http://bluejersey.com/diary/13717/mar ... lity-does-an-economy-good

"The most recent study of New Jersey's economy from Williams Institute at UCLA said that marriage equality would inject $248 million of direct spending into the state economy over the course of 3 years. Resident couples and those from out of state would get married and spend."

he talked all about working to block it just to sure up the support of the hateful religious conservative base, who only care about imposing their "morals" on all of us.

there are religious nuts everywhere, but you'd like to think separation of church and state actually exists. and this isn't alabama. those people are the minority. they should be ignored when it comes to political issues. sadly the churches have a lot of money to fund their hate (not to mention their child molestation cover-ups). it would make sense that because of their involvement in political issues that their tax exemptions should be revoked.

i'd like to see NJ pass this, as it concerns me directly, however after some setbacks, i'm a little nervous about its chances.

but, DC and Washington state have recently passed equality laws. so maybe we can follow.

we'll see.

Christie during the campaign actually promised to do much more than just veto any bill that would create marriage equality. He vowed to work actively against any possibility of legalizing same sex marriage in NJ, which means he wants to proactively pass a Prop 8 type law that makes creating marriage equality by law impossible. I called his campaign HQ during the election and they confirmed this.

Senator Cunningham is one of the sponsors of the bill. Wondering if Christie knows that?

I agree with SamS: the deficit will be around for awhile; Christie will not be able to make it magically disappear. While Mr. Christie is powerless to fix our REAL problems, he has promised to be strong enough to fix our made up issues... by rejecting my rights to be able to marry my partner.

My partner and I have been together for four years, which pales in comparison to many of our friends who have been in committed relationships for 10-20 years. 50% of them have children, so the ignorant comment earlier about paying taxes into the school system is just that, ignorant.

I'm so tired of everyone asking what the big deal is! Educate yourselves, people. If you let me marry now, my federal taxes go down. This will allow us to save, buy a house and start paying local property taxes....which supports Jersey City schools!

Equality, while the right thing to do, is also a smart business decision, which is why the most competitive businesses and states have chosen this path. Everyone has this holier than thou attitude, which is not based in research, reality or even logic, for that matter.

It would be nice if the politicians in Jersey wrapped up the year by making news that didn't involve federal prosecutors, handcuffs and indictments - you know, something residents could actually be proud of. God forbid they do the right thing, for a change.

The deficit issue probably can't be resolved for a long time. On the other hand, giving the lesbian and gay constituents of NJ their constitutional right to marry should take less than one day, with the stroke of a pen, while costing the state basically nothing. So there's no reason to maintain that this issue is a distraction to resolving any other important issue with which the state of NJ has to address.

Just Do It.

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jrsygrl is right and I am one of those people. My partner and I entered into a NJ dometic partnership agreement several years back when that was the only thing available and we need to do it so I could add him to my employer sponsored health insurance. When civil unions became available, we looked into having one but it just didn't seem worth it, especially when it seemed that marriage equality was just a couple of years away. Since then, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont and New Hampshire have marriage equality so we decided that we'd wait until NJ joined the fold. Then we saw California, Maine and NY do the wrong thing.

We are no longer going to wait. If NJ doesn't pass marriage equality, we're moving to Connecticut. The taxes are much lower and the state will give us our equal civil rights. Enough is enough.

greenville, I'm guessing a lot of folks are waiting for actual marriage, and not a civil union. And this "attention" isn't -- and shouldn't -- go away. Free up the politicians and save the state money now by passing gay marriage!

"8,340 people in civil unions out of a population of 8.6 million."
This issued is given so much attention and only affects a few thousand people. There's a lot of things that are severely wrong with our state like the huge deficit which should get a as much attention from these politicians as gay marriage. What's the point of letting gays marry if they won't be able to afford living in this state?

If you need inspiration or education on why equality matters, please watch the speech from NYS Senator Diane Savino. She is amazingly frank, funny, and compassionate. Ms. Savino and her enlightened colleagues fought the good fight.

Here is the updated list of our State Senators for Jersey City.

New Jersey Legislative District 31
State Senator Sandra Bolden Cunningham (D)
1738 Kennedy Boulevard
Jersey City, NJ 07305
Phone: (201) 451-5100

New Jersey Legislative District 32
State Senator Nicholas J. Sacco (D)
9060 Palisade Avenue
North Bergen, New Jersey 07047
Phone: (201) 295-0200

New Jersey Legislative District 33
State Senator Brian P. Stack (D)
3715 Palisades Ave, 3rd floor
Union City, NJ 07087
Phone: (201) 330-3233

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/05/nyr ... ge.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion

If you support marriage equality and don't want what happenned across the river (spineless state senators backing away from promises for political reasons) to happen in our state, please call your senator and urge him/her to vote for marriage equality.