The vote on the marriage equality bill in the full New Jersey Senate has been delayed to give the Assembly time to hear testimony as well. The move was prompted by a letter from bill sponsors Senators Loretta Weinberg and Raymond Lesniak Both houses need to pass the bill for it to become law, so this is fantastic news. As BlueJersey puts it:
Sen. Codey agrees to postpone the vote, at the request of sponsors Weinberg and Lesniak, until the Assembly Judiciary Committee has had time to hold hearing on the bill. Codey: I understand their desire to make sure this bill receives the thorough attention it deserves and therefore I have agreed to postpone tomorrow’s vote until further notice.
Click through to read to the full statement from Sen. Weinberg and Sen. Lesniak, as provided by Garden State Equality.
In this week’s Register-News I have a Reporter’s Notebook column on the marriage equality debate in New Jersey. I’d quote it, but that seems a bit too self-referential, particularly since the bottom of the column links to this blog.
In related news, I was heartbroken to have to leave the car in the middle of this morning’s Radio Times on WHYY, the Philadelphia NPR affiliate.
New Jersey’s Senate Judiciary Committee just approved 7-6 to send the marriage equality bill to a vote in the full Senate! That’s a more narrow margin than I’d like to see, but dozens of residents testified for the afternoon and most of the evening, and I’d like to thank everyone who gave witness to the reasons why we all deserve the same rights.
It’s unfortunate that my own senator, Senator Jennifer Beck (R-12), voted no on the bill, and she’ll be hearing from me about it. I encourage every marriage equality supporter in New Jersey to contact your state senator and let them know they need to support this bill when it comes before them. Leave them a message tonight, and call them every day until equality has passed!
The New Jersey Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled discussion, and a possible vote, on the marriage equality bill for Monday, Dec. 7. The hearing will start at 1 p.m., and with any luck will lead to a vote in the senate soon thereafter. Garden State Equality, of course, will be meeting up at 9 a.m. Monday at the Marriott on West Lafayette Street to prepare. This is what GSE’s last few rallies have been working for, and it’s very heartening to see the legislation move forward.
This all comes on the heels of a 650-person rally in Trenton today for this very bill – details over at BlueJersey. I’m afraid I couldn’t make it due to work commitments (which is why Mondays are always out), but I’m going to do everything in my power to be there on Thursday. I know GSE’s e-mails have a habit of calling all of these lobby days “urgent,” but next weeks will be absolutely vital to the movement.
Astute readers may have noticed my posts have of late been centered on same-sex marriage equality and less on my personal life. That’s because I’m working very hard on the former, leaving very little time for the latter, but I would like to note I took my boyfriend out to a wonderful birthday dinner at few weeks ago at the very cozy, amazingly delicious Eno Terra in Kingston, NJ, where we were treated exceptionally well. Anyone feeling invested in seeing more frequent posts and/or giving me more personal time can help both causes by attending the rallies, volunteering for the cause, or donating! Details here.
The New York state Senate just voted against marriage equality 38-24. One friend who was able to listen in told me, “37 people voted no without bothering ot say a single other word justifying their hate. Shameful.”
It’s very bizarre to have a group of legislators openly debate and vote on rights that are so personal and fundamental. It’s hard to not read or hear anti-marriage arguments as saying, “Geoff, you shouldn’t be allowed to get married,” because in effect that’s exactly what they mean.
My boyfriend lives in New York; I’m in New Jersey. With New York out of the running, New Jersey may soon become the only nearby place we can get married when we so choose. (You’d think with their huge budget shortfall, New York would want the money that would bring their state.)
Some Jersey lawmakers will attempt to interpret the New York vote to mean the will of the people is against marriage, but the vote today shows nothing but the cowardice of 38 New York senators. In fact, more people in New Jersey support same-sex marriage than don’t, according to a recent poll, and those numbers grow more in the favor of marriage equality every day. Now it’s up to my elected representatives to acknowledge that I am just as much a person as my neighbors are, that I have the same rights and responsibilities as my friend, and that “separate but equal” is not and can never be equal.
I’ve been helping out Garden State Equality a lot lately, which is why I’ve been less vocal on here than usual. They held their first big marriage equality rally in Trenton on Monday, and while I was beholden to an early Thanksgiving deadline and couldn’t attend, I was there in spirit.
So in lieu of my reporting, I present this YouTube highlight reel:
Reports vary, but it seems there were about 300 pro-marriage people there, and just 75 or so against.
Same-sex marriage has been a hot topic in a lot of media outlets since the Monday rally, most notably the leftist NJ site Blue Jersey. Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-15) wrote a fantastic commentary on why New Jersey needs to pass marriage this year. Even the New York Times attended the lobby day, although the story they posted was a bit pessimistic as I see it.
GSE is planning another lobby day the Thursday after Thanksgiving, again in Trenton and this time at the direct request of pro-marriage legislators. Here’s some of what they’re e-mailing:
Thursday, December 3rd at 8:00 am, we’ll meet at Garden State Equality’s office at 110 West State Street in Trenton, across from the State House. From there we’ll do a public march to the State House, where we’ll have a hospitality room to serve free breakfast and then free lunch.
We’re now at the tipping point of history: Every event we do must have unbelievable turnout, just like this past week’s lobby day that influenced legislators tremendously. That’s why legislators have requested we do another. Please attend if at all you can.
This is worth taking the day off from work. Will you?
My aunts in Maine aren’t going to be considered married there anytime soon, now that state voters passed a referendum repealing their marriage law. This is particularly upsetting for me since I vividly recall phoning them to let them know the governor had signed the marriage bill into law, and they were so happy. But a petition blocked it before it went into effect, so the state never recognized their marriage, and it looks like it won’t for a while yet.
It’s extremely frustrating to see people’s basic rights put up to a popular vote. People complain about the LGBT community pushing too hard, but if you go back a few decades you’ll see civil rights victories that seemed impossible. We’re only “pushing” for what’s rightfully ours, and I’m confident we’ll get there eventually. It’s just going to keep being a bumpy road for a while.
In somewhat more encouraging news, it appears a referendum to affirm “everything but marriage” domestic partnerships is ahead in Washington. We should know today.
First LGBT news of election night: Kalamazoo residents voted by a large margin to keep the city’s anti-discrimination ordinance!
UPDATE 11:40 p.m. : Looks like Maine’s still too close to call, according to the Bangor Daily News. In sad news for New Jersey marriage equality advocates, incumbent Gov. Jon S. Corzine lost to Republican Chris Christie, who is an outspoken foe of the gay community.
The New York Times has a nice piece on the upcoming marriage battle in the courts over Prop 8. Among the many they spoke with is Kenji Yoshino, a Yale law professor I wrote about a while back and for whom I have tremendous respect.
Some highlights:
The suit was, gay rights advocates said then, the wrong claim in the wrong court in the wrong state at the wrong time…
Those objections are waning. The ship has sailed, said Kenji Yoshino, a law professor atNew York University, and gay rights advocates “need to focus on getting it to the right destination.” He added that Judge Walker’s refusal to dismiss the case “was a major victory for Olson and Boies.” …
Judge Walker has scheduled a trial in the case for January. He wants to hear about the history and purpose of marriage and the consequences of allowing same-sex couples to marry. And he has hinted that he may allow the proceedings to be televised.
“We should buckle our seatbelts,” Professor Yoshino said. “A comprehensive vetting of the empirical issues by a judicial tribunal is welcome and long overdue. Walker’s trial bids fair to be a trial in an almost scientific sense of the word.”
I’m crazy busy tonight, but I just had to take a second to tell everyone that the Senate passed the Matthew Shepard Act, which once signed will extend federal hate crimes protection to LGBT people! Obama has pledged to sign it.
The Senate passed groundbreaking legislation Thursday that would make it a federal crime to assault an individual because of his or her sexual orientation or gender identity.
The expanded federal hate crimes law now goes to President Obama’s desk. Obama has pledged to sign the measure, which was added to a $680 billion defense authorization bill.
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