Defending the Truth

NJ State Commission: Civil Unions Fail Gay Couples
by The Associated Press Posted: February 17, 2008 - 8:00 am ET
(Mount Laurel, New Jersey) A commission established to study same-sex civil unions in New Jersey has found in its first report that civil unions create a "second-class status" for gay couples, rather than giving them equality.
The report stops short of recommending that the state allow gay marriage. But it does find that gay couples in Massachusetts, the only state that now allows same-sex marriage, do not experience some of the legal complications that those in New Jersey do.
The Associated Press obtained a copy of the initial report, which was scheduled to be made public Tuesday, the first anniversary of the state's first civil unions.
State lawmakers made New Jersey the third state to offer civil unions with a law adopted in 2006 in reaction to a state Supreme Court ruling that year that found gay couples were entitled to the same legal protections as married couples.
The civil union law sought to give gay couples those benefits, but not the title of marriage. As a part of the same law, the review commission was created to look into whether it was working.
Gay rights advocates say the civil unions do not deliver and have pledged to push lawmakers to vote to allow marriage. Gov. Jon S. Corzine has said he would be willing to sign such a bill into law but doesn't want the issue to be taken up before the presidential election in November.
The activists say civil unions, in practice, do not offer the legal protections that marriage does. The commission largely agreed with them.
The commission held three public hearings last year at which the majority of the testimony came from people who were in civil unions and said they were still not being treated the way married couples are by government agencies, employers and others.
For instance, the commission found that many companies in the state that are self-insured - and therefore are regulated by federal, rather than state, law - refuse to provide health insurance to the partners of their employees.
While employers in Massachusetts could legally do the same thing, most do not, according to the report.
The commission also finds that many people in the state do not understand civil unions, which create a "second-class status."
The commission's report says the misunderstanding of civil unions makes it more difficult for a child to grow up in New Jersey with gay parents, or to be gay themselves.
Through Jan. 19, 2,329 couples had received civil union licenses, according to the state Health and Senior Services Department.
Some social conservatives have said the commission is slanted in favor of allowing gay marriage, and opponents of gay marriage have been pushing back in New Jersey.
Roman Catholic churches around the state have been planning special prayers on marriage for Sunday. A major aim is to promote marriage as being between only a man and a woman.
A conservative Princeton group, the National Organization for Marriage, has aired radio commercials that say allowing gay marriage would undermine some religious teachings that homosexuality is wrong.

So, civil unions don't cut it either?

Seems to me there problem isnt NJ, but the federal goverment.

of course it is - until the federal government recognizes "civil unions" EQUALLY as they recognize "marriages" it will never be fair.

we learned a long time ago that separate but equal was never equal ... you'd think we'd have bought a vowel by now

Anything less than equality doesn't cut it.

Civil unions only give part of the state benefits and none of the federal benefits that come with the marriage contract.

Here's an easy-to-read chart that makes the inequality easy to see:

http://www.glad.org/rights/Marriage_v_CU_chart.pdf

With DOMA in effect, you aren't gonna get them anyway. And since there is no reason same gender "marriage" is a "right" I don't see the argument for it as valid.

all law-abiding American citizens should be treated fairly, justly and equally.

that's all the validity required

Well get in line, cause there are many people, gay or not, that are not treated equaly. I see no reason that your cause is more important than any others.

All are treated equally. They all have the right to marry an opposite gendered human. Just like all "normal" humans should. There are people with disorders that point them in "other" directions, but it is no "right" to have your disorder validated by society.

I'll help them fight their battles for equality after I achieve mine.