Tag: New Jersey

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New Jersey voter confronts Gov. Christie on marriage equality

On a recent campaign stop at the Edison Diner in New Jersey, one of the voters in attendance, Bert Bueno, brought up the issue of marriage equality and asked why Gov. Christie opposed the legislation:

“How come you’re in opposition?” Bueno, a straight woman, asked the Republican leader.

“Listen: Lots of different people have different views on this,” Christie responded. “I think marriage should be between a man and a woman. … My view is: If you want to change it, put it on the ballot. Let everybody decide. It shouldn’t be decided by courts. It shouldn’t be decided by politicians in Trenton. It should be decided by everybody. If the majority of the people of New Jersey want same-sex marriage, I’ll enforce the law.”

In a four-minute exchange, Christie claimed that he has gay friends and relatives, and he contested Bueno’s stance that marriage equality is “a human rights issue.”

“The fact is: We’ve been very supportive of a lot of other things, like banning gay conversion therapy,” said Christie, who signed a bill last month that banned use of the discredited practice on minors. “This is an issue where we have an honest difference of opinion. OK, so you put it on the ballot — you vote your way, I vote my way. And whoever gets the most votes wins.”

A recent poll found that 62% of registered New Jersey voters support the September 27 decision of Superior Court judge Mary Jacobson to legalize same-sex marriage, which would go into effect October 21, barring any delays or appeals on the Governor’s behalf.

(via Advocate)

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New Jersey: Sixty-two percent of NJ voters support legalizing marriage equality

Nearly two-thirds of registered voters in New Jersey approve of a decision by a Superior Court judge to legalize same-sex marriage in the state, according to a Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind poll released today.

The poll found that of the 702 registered voters questioned, 62 percent agreed with Superior Court Judge Mary Jacobson’s Sept. 27 decision to allow same-sex couples to get married on the ground that the current state law was a violation of a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

More at NJ.com

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NJ: Mayor Cory Booker leads Senate race by double digits with one week to election


Newark Mayor Cory Booker

The New Jersey special election for U.S. Senate is just over a week away, and Newark Mayor Cory Booker still holds a double-digit lead over Republican Steve Lonegan.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely New Jersey Voters shows Booker with 53% of the vote to Lonegan’s 41%.

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New Jersey: Lambertville Mayor promises to perform state’s first same-sex marriage

Last year’s “New Jersey Mayor of the Year” – David DelVecchio of Lambertville – promised today to perform the state’s first same-sex marriage if the current ruling on marriage equality stands:

DelVecchio, a Democrat, said he will perform the state’s first legal gay marriage ceremony for Beth Asaro and Joanne Schailey at midnight three weeks from today, as long as a judge doesn’t grant a stay of the Sept. 27 ruling.

Lambertville, across the Delaware River from New Hope, Pennsylvania, has a large gay population. “This is just a continuation of the first civil union,” DelVecchio, 56, said today in an interview. “If a stay is not granted on the 21st, we’re going to move forward with this.”

Superior Court Judge Mary Jacobson ruled last week in Trenton that she “will order the state to permit any and all same-sex marriages.” Unless the ruling is blocked, it would take effect Oct. 21, making New Jersey the 14th state to allow gay marriages along with the District of Columbia.

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New Jersey: State judge rules same-sex couples must be allowed to marry beginning October 21, 2013

Mercer County Superior Court Judge Mary Jacobson has ruled that same-sex couples must be allowed to marry in order to obtain equal protection under the state constitution and ordered them to begin on October 21st.

AP: “In a summary judgment issued Friday, Judge Mary Jacobson says now that the federal government recognizes gay marriages, not doing so in New Jersey would violate the state constitution.”

From NBC New York:  Judge Mary Jacobson granted a summary judgment requested by Garden State Equality, which had claimed that the U.S. Supreme Court’s rejection of the federal Defense of Marriage Act meant that same-sex couples in civil unions in New Jersey were being denied equal protection.

From NJ.com :  The gay rights groups Garden State Equality and Lambda Legal had argued that after the U.S. Supreme Court extended more than 1,000 tax and inheritance benefits to same-sex couples in June, New Jersey was left behind with second-class civil unions.

Jacobson, the head judge in Mercer County, agreed:

“The ineligibility of same-sex couples for federal benefits is currently harming same-sex couples in New Jersey in a wide range of contexts,” she wrote.  (Emphasis is mine).

For example, the judge said, “civil union partners who are federal employees living in New Jersey are ineligible for marital rights with regard to the federal pension system, all civil union partners who are employees working for businesses to which the Family and Medical Leave Act applies may not rely on its statutory protections for spouses, and civil union couples may not access the federal tax benefits that married couples enjoy.”

Jacobson was asked to square the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in June striking down the Defense of Marriage Act with New Jersey’s own legal precedents.

New Jersey would become the 14th state to recognize same-sex marriage.

The decision is expected to be appealed, first to an intermediate court, and then to the state Supreme Court.

Today’s ruling below:

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Trenton Times editorial board “Only a matter of time” before marriage equality legal in New Jersey

From the editorial board of the Trenton Times:

It’s only a matter of time before same-sex marriage is legal in New Jersey.

If history is any guide, individual states are achingly slow in catching up with the individuals who have embraced their civil rights as the personal liberties guaranteed by the by the 13th and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. It took nearly a century after the Civil War for Congress to pass a law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.

Still, in this evolved age, when science holds that sexual identity is no more a choice than eye color or race, it’s hard to believe that laws forbidding the marriage of same-sex couples remain.

Gay and lesbian couples in New Jersey are not being treated equally under the law. As Times columnist George Amick wrote in his recent analysis, the court “ended any pretense that New Jersey’s law authorizing civil unions affords the equal rights and privileges to same-sex couples to which the New Jersey Supreme Court has said they’re entitled.” 

State legislators will have the opportunity to recognize those rights in a vote — promised by Democrats after the November election — attempting to override Gov. Chris Christie’s veto of a measure legalizing same-sex marriage. To succeed, lawmakers will have to muster a super-majority of support. Advocates are busy lobbying about a dozen Republicans and reluctant Democrats to stand up for the majority of New Jerseyans who approve of same-sex marriages.

We hope their consciences recognize that liberty and justice for all must include allowing same-sex couples to marry.

A recent July Quinnipiac poll finds that 60 percent of New Jersey voters support marriage equality, while only 31 percent are opposed.

I should note that my husband, Michael, is from New Jersey. While we look forward to the day when marriage equality is legal everywhere, New Jersey is definitely on our “short list” of states we’d like to see pass this important legislation sooner than later.

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New Jersey: GOP Senate candidate thinks it’s “weird” Cory Booker won’t say if he’s gay

As I wrote here yesterday, Newark Mayor Cory Booker has stated that he isn’t interested in labels about sexuality, and wants to challenge folks on their homophobia.

His Senate opponent, Steve Lonegan, says he thinks it’s “weird” that Booker won’t say if he’s gay or straight. He also alludes to the idea that being “gay” isn’t masculine or something by saying “as a guy, I personally like being a guy.”

Here’s just a bit of what Lonegan had to say to by Newsmax’s Steve Malzberg:

“As a guy, I personally like being a guy,” Lonegan, who is the former New Jersey head for the Koch Brothers’ Americans for Prosperity, told Newsmax’s Steve Malzberg. “I don’t know if you saw the stories last year, they’ve been out quite a bit, about how he likes to go out at three-o’clock in the morning for a manicure and a pedicure.”

“Maybe that helps him get the gay vote, by acting ambiguous,” he continued. “Although I don’t like going out in the middle of the night, or any time of day, for manicures and pedicures. It was described as his peculiar fetish, is how it was described. I have a more peculiar fetish: I like a good Scotch and a cigar, that’s my fetish. But we’ll just compare the two.”

In the middle of that to bring up “fetishes” like cigars and such, I just got a little lost in where Lonegan was going with all that.

Recent polling shows Booker up 16 points in the special Senate race.

(via Right Wing Watch)

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New Jersey: Mayor Cory Booker leads GOP rival by 16 points in Senate race

According to a Monmouth University poll released this morning, Mayor Cory Booker has a 16 point lead against GOP rival Steve Lonegan, the former New Jersey chapter head of the far-right Americans For Prosperity.

Booker currently holds a 54% to 38% advantage over Lonegan among New Jerseyans likely to vote in the October 16 special election. Booker has solid support among Democratic voters (92%), while Lonegan musters support from 79% of his partisan base. Independent voters split, 43% for Booker to 41% for Lonegan. ooker gets more positive ratings from Republicans (27%) than Lonegan gets from Democrats (5%). They receive about the same “net” score from independents: +22 for Booker (49% favorable to 27% unfavorable) and +23 for Lonegan (37% favorable to 14% unfavorable).

Lonegan has all the expected positions: anti-gay, anti-abortion, anti-immigrant, anti-Obamacare, anti-gun control.

(via JMG)

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Maggie Gallagher criticizes NJ ban of “ex-gay” torture

A once high-profile opponent of same-sex couples’ marriage rights took aim Monday at Gov. Chris Christie’s decision to sign legislation into law that would ban therapy aimed at changing the sexual orientation of minors.

Maggie Gallagher, the former head of the National Organization for Marriage, who has kept a low profile over the past year, reappeared on the public scene Monday to attack the New Jersey governor for his bill signing.

“The new law communicates to gays and lesbians seeking to conform their lives to their values that they are second-glass [sic] citizens, without the same right to seek help that other people enjoy. It is a right of self-determination that Gov. Christie has shut down,” Gallagher said in a statement in her role as chairman of the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund.

New Jersey’s LGBT group, Garden State Equality, defended Christie and the legislation — an unusual position for the group that has been fighting Christie on his opposition to marriage equality.

“It’s not about self-determination. What she’s advocating for is taking away self-determination from the youth of New Jersey,” Garden State Equality executive director Troy Stevenson said.

More at Buzzfeed

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New Jersey: Gov. Christie to sign bill outlawing “ex-gay” torture for minors

Today New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will sign into law a bill that bans “ex-gay therapy” for minors:

“Government should tread carefully into this area,” he said in the signing note, which was obtained by The Associated Press, “and I do so here reluctantly.”

“However, I also believe that on the issues of medical treatment for children we must look to experts in the field to determine the relative risks and rewards,” Christie said, citing a litany of potential ill effects of trying to change sexual orientation, including depression and suicide.

“I believe that exposing children to these health risks without clear evidence of benefits that outweigh these serious risks is not appropriate.”

Gay rights groups say the practice of conversion therapy is damaging to young people because it tells them that it’s not acceptable to be whoever they are.

Christie’s signing message also declares that he believes that people are born gay and that homosexuality is not a sin. The Associated Press notes that such beliefs are “inconsistent with his Catholic faith.” We’ll see how that squares with the far-right fringe whose support Christie will need should he run for President in 2016.

(source)