Equality Advocates: New Jersey Lagging in Marriage Progress

Even as New York legislators closed in on marriage equality rights for gay and lesbian families in that state, New Jersey -- once viewed as a promising state for GLBT legal equality -- appeared to lag behind, media stories said.

Though New Jersey was once a leader in GLBT rights, and has adopted a civil unions policy that gives same-sex couples many of the right and protections that married heterosexuals enjoy, progress toward full-fledged marriage equality has stalled.

"They're talking about it in New York," openly gay State Assembly member Reed Guscioram, a Democrat, said last week. "Why aren't we talking about it in New Jersey?"

If Guscioram has his way, NJ lawmakers will be talking about the issue, and taking it seriously. The assemblyman introduced a bill to extend marriage equality to New Jersey's gay and lesbian families on June 13, according to an article posted to NJ.com on June 16.

"In New Jersey, it's the first time a lawmaker has put forward a bill on gay marriage since it was defeated in the state Senate in January 2010 -- just before Gov. Chris Christie took office," the article noted.

That development was a heart breaker for GLBT marriage equality advocates, who had pressed hard for the law in the interim between equality-friendly former Gov. Jon Corzine leaving office and his successor, anti-gay current NJ Gov. Chris Christie, assuming the post. At the time, onlookers predicted that the measure's failure would arrest progress for New Jersey's gay and lesbian families for years to come.

But the NJ.com article also acknowledged that chances are slim New Jersey would be able to overcome the obstacles presented by an anti-gay Republican governor and a solid GOP majority in the state's legislature -- not to mention uncertain support from Democrats.

The article referenced Garden State Equality head Steve Goldstein, who suggested that the issue might fare better in the courts. But the New Jersey State Supreme Court has already declined to hear a case involving marriage equality. The court turned away a case last August, refusing to hear it without offering an explanation, reported local newspaper the Star-Ledger at the time.

Speculation as to the court's refusal centered around the plainspoken Gov. Christie, whose brash and sometimes confrontational style has made him a rising star in GOP circles, although a recent scandal involving personal use of a state-owned helicopter may have tarnished his image.

The Star-Ledger noted that the justices who wanted to hear the case were permanent members of the bench, but that three other justices were vulnerable to being removed by Gov. Christie. State lawmakers wondered aloud whether a fear of Christie's wrath interfered with the judicial process.

Christie had already proven himself willing to go after Supreme Court justices, having removed the court's sole African-American justice.

"I think the three justices who voted against the motion looked over their shoulders and saw Chris Christie," Rutgers Law School professor Frank Askin told the Star-Ledger. "There is no question in my mind that fear of what the Governor would do played a part in that decision."

Voters in Iowa removed three state Supreme Court justices who came up for retention votes last year. Anti-gay groups spearheaded an effort to get them removed after the Iowa state Supreme Court ruled unanimously that a state law banning marriage for gay and lesbian families violated protections set out in the state constitution. Same-sex couples subsequently began marrying in Iowa, so far the only state in the heartland where marriage for same-sex families is legal.

"The [New Jersey] Supreme Court basically told us, 'If you believe civil unions don't work, you have to go back to trial and show us,' " Goldstein told the Times of Trenton, which published a story on the issue on June 20.

"It's a wise invitation for us to accept, and we'll have an announcement on that subject imminently," Goldstein added.

Goldstein predicted that if marriage equality became law in New York, New Jersey would feel the sting of having lost its status as a trailblazer for civil rights in the American Northeast. That, in turn, might stimulate movement on the issue, especially since resentments would rise at the notion that couples near the New York border could take a short ride into their neighboring state and marry there -- even though, under the provisions of the anti-gay 1996 "Defense of Marriage" Act (DOMA), states are free to ignore legal marriages granted in other jurisdictions if those marriages involve a same-sex couple.

"There's a huge sense of New Jersey pride involved," Goldstein clarified. "New Jersey has been a civil rights leader throughout the decades. It has now fallen behind, and New York is showing the way. I think people in New Jersey will be embarrassed."

If New York does legalize marriage equality, it will be the most populous state to so since California's brief window of family parity in 2008 -- a period that ended when voters in that state rescinded the marriage rights of gay and lesbian when anti-gay ballot initiative Proposition 8 was passed by a bare majority of voters following a bitter and deeply divisive campaign.

Proposition 8 was later struck down in federal court as unconstitutional, but marriage in California has not resumed because that verdict is under appeal and ancillary legal issues are also still working their way through the courts.

The result of marriage equality in New York would be to double, overnight, the number of American citizens who live in a state where marriage parity is legal, according to a Williams Institute study. That, in turn, could affect the nationwide marriage equality struggle on both the state and federal level.

DOMA itself is currently under challenge in the courts, and one federal judge has found part of the 1996 law to be unconstitutional. The Obama Administration has stopped defending DOMA in federal court due to questions about the law's Constitutionality.

Meantime, the public at large has become increasingly accepting of GLBTs and their families. A recent poll showed that, for the first time, a majority of Americans support marriage parity for gay and lesbian families.

"The tide of civil rights is becoming overwhelming, right before our legislators' eyes," Goldstein told the Times of Trenton. "The only question is whether they're going to swim with that tide.

"The majority of Americans are with us," added Goldstein. "The world has changed."