NJ and Gays: Perfect Together?

How exciting!  I went to college in NJ and lived there after for some time.  It has always been a fairly progressive state.  This move would be very exciting if it goes through.  We should find out soon, it seems.

From cnn.com (http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/10/25/jersey.samesex.ap/index.html)

TRENTON, New Jersey (AP) -- Gay couples waiting to hear Wednesday if New Jersey becomes the second U.S. state to allow same-sex marriage said the state Supreme Court's decision would make it one of the happiest or saddest days of their lives.

The New Jersey Supreme Court was poised to release the highly anticipated decision later Wednesday in a case brought by seven gay couples who say the state constitution allows them to marry, said Winnie Comfort, a spokeswoman for the state judiciary.

"If it's a yes, it will be one of the happiest days, if it's a no, it will be a huge disappointment," said Saundra Heath-Toby, a plaintiff in the case who would like to marry Alicia Toby-Heath, the woman she already calls her wife.

New Jersey is one of only five U.S. states with neither a law nor a state constitutional amendment blocking same-sex marriage. As a result, the state is more likely than others to allow gays to wed, said advocacy groups on both sides.

Only Massachusetts -- by virtue of a 2003 ruling from that state's top court -- allows gay marriages.

Proponents and opponents from across the country are watching the case closely.

"New Jersey is a stepping stone," said Matt Daniels, president of the Virginia-based Alliance for Marriage, a group pushing for an amendment to the federal Constitution to outlaw same-sex marriage. "It's not about New Jersey."

From a practical standpoint, the Massachusetts court decision made little impact nationally because the state has a law barring out-of-state couples from wedding there if their marriages would not be recognized in their home states.

New Jersey has no such law.

People on both sides of the issue expect a victory for same-sex unions would make New Jersey a destination for gay couples from around the country who want to get married. Some of those couples could return home and sue to have their marriages recognized.