Hooray for the New Jersey Supreme Court
A victory in the struggle for gay equality from the New Jersey Supreme Court.
In the Court’s opinion in Lewis v. Harris, New Jersey Supreme Court Justice Barry Albin stated, “To comply with the equal protection guarantee…of the New Jersey Constitution, the State must provide to committed same-sex couples, on equal terms, the full rights and benefits enjoyed by heterosexual married couples.” The Court gave the New Jersey legislature 180 days to decide whether to amend the marriage statutes to include same-sex couples or enact a parallel structure with all the rights and benefits of marriage.
Although the court did not grant full marriage rights it made a great stride in providing equality for all of the citizens of New Jersey. It sent the matter to the state legislature. We can only hope that when the New Jersey legislature meets to take up this subject they take the full step and amend the marriage statutes to include same sex couples. If you live in New Jersey make sure you contact your representatives in Trenton and tell them you want full equality under the law. This ruling now brings to four the number of states that provide equality for same sex couples, joining Vermont, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.
Here in Pennsylvania we are not so lucky as we still have the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) which makes discrimination against same sex couples the law of the commonwealth. DOMA also prevents Pennsylvania from recognizing marriages or civil unions for same sex couples performed in other states where it is legal. We must now work to change this here in Pennsylvania