Politicians lean away

from gay marriage

Lawmakers look to civil unions for gay couples

By JONATHAN TAMARI, GANNETT, Home News Tribune Online 10/27/06

TRENTON — The prospects for same-sex marriage in New Jersey appeared bleak yesterday, one day after the state Supreme Court ruled the Legislature must provide equal rights to gay and lesbian couples but left lawmakers to decide how to provide those rights.

Interviews and statements from 22 lawmakers made it clear that Democrats, who control the Legislature, plan to endorse civil unions that afford all the same rights as marriage. Marriage would be left to opposite-sex couples.

"That position would be more acceptable to the membership," said Senate President Richard J. Codey, D-Essex.

Codey, who believes marriage should be limited to man and woman, called civil unions "a strong possibility."

"Civil unions with full rights and obligations (of marriage) is what we're going to approve," said Sen. Raymond Lesniak, D-Union.

Few lawmakers openly support same-sex marriage, although most of those interviewed said they support expanding gay and lesbian couples' rights.

"I believe full civil-union rights does exactly that without doing any harm to people's religious beliefs," Lesniak said.

Codey and Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts Jr., D-Camden, have also said they would not support an amendment that would seek to strip away the rights same-sex couples won in the court decision.  The court gave lawmakers 180 days to act on its ruling.

Sen. Barbara Buono, D-Middlesex, supports gay marriage but said there are not enough votes in the Legislature to make it happen.

"I personally believe that the right to marry is fundamental and to deny it to same-sex couples just because they happen to be gay is morally wrong," Buono said.

Anthony Coley, a spokesman for Gov. Jon S. Corzine, said the governor would not block a bill allowing gay marriage, but "his preference is for civil unions."

The court ruled that gay and lesbian couples must have all the same rights as married heterosexual couples, but that lawmakers should decide on the method.

"Plaintiffs' quest does not end here.  Their next appeal must be to their fellow citizens whose voices are heard through their popularly elected representatives," Justice Barry T. Albin wrote in his majority opinion.

In 2003 and 2004, when the Legislature took up domestic partnerships, which granted gay couples some of the rights of marriage, the bill barely survived.  In the Assembly it received 41 votes, the bare minimum for passage, while it won 23 votes in the Senate, two more than required.

A law creating civil unions offering the same rights as marriage would follow a path set by Vermont after its court made a similar ruling.  Connecticut has a similar law in place.

Only one state legislature — California's — has voted in favor of same-sex marriage, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill.  Massachusetts is the only state that allows gay marriage, but that right came through a court ruling.

Hours after the New Jersey court decision was released Wednesday, gay-rights advocates vowed to continue campaigning for marriage and not a substitute.

"When government says one group gets this status but the other group can't ... it's a brand of inferiority," said David Buckel, the attorney who argued on behalf of seven gay and lesbian couples who sued the state for the right to marry.

Steven Goldstein, chairman of gay-rights group Garden State Equality, said he would launch an "aggressive" campaign to fight for marriage, not civil unions.

Members of both major political parties, however, objected to gay marriage, and some lawmakers were balking at being ordered by the Supreme Court to change the rules on gay rights.

Assemblyman Jeff Van Drew, D-Cape May, said expanding marriage to include same-sex couples could "polarize" the state.  He said the Legislature should instead reinforce its existing laws granting rights to gay couples.

New Jersey currently allows domestic partnerships that offer some, but not all, of the rights of marriage.  Since July 2004, 4,354 same-sex couples have registered their partnership; the 2000 census estimated at least 16,000 same-sex couple households.

Buckel, in an interview yesterday, said the new rights afforded under the court ruling would allow gay couples to share health coverage, to sue for the wrongful death of their partner, to collect death benefits when their partner dies and help determine what happens to one person's estate when they die.  The new rights would also include an orderly structure for dissolving the unions similar to divorce.

Contributing: Michael Rispoli, Jonathan Tamari: jtamari@gannett.com