No timeline to permit gay marriage in NJ

TRENTON — Legislative leaders reiterated their long-term support for allowing same-sex couples to marry in New Jersey but didn’t promise immediate action on a call today by a state review commission to scrap civil unions in favor of gay marriage.  The Civil Union Review Commission said in a 79-page report issued today that state law should be amended to allow gay marriage — and quickly, saying “any delay in marriage equality will harm all the people of New Jersey.” 

The commission said current New Jersey law, drafted in response to a state Supreme Court order, allowing gay couples to enter civil unions “encourages unequal treatment of same-sex couples and their children” and that some employers and hospitals don’t afford civil union couples the same rights as married ones. 

“Even if, given enough time, civil unions are understood to provide rights and responsibilities equivalent to those provided in marriage, they send a message to the public: same-sex couples are not equal to opposite-sex married couples in the eyes of the law, that they are ‘not good enough’ to warrant true equality,” says the report.   See No timeline to permit gay marriage in NJ
Dailyrecord.com - Parsippany,NJ,USA