Time for the NJ Legislature to Do the Right Thing

The New Jersey legislature has an historic opportunity to lead in the effort to ensure that gay Americans have full equality. The choices are clear: set up a separate civil arrangement for gay New Jersey couples or end their invalid exclusion from marriage. Given the fact that separate has not nor will it ever be truly equal, the right choice should be equally clear.

New Jersey's highest court ruled Wednesday that "denying committed same-sex couples the financial and social benefits and privileges given to their married heterosexual counterparts bears on substantial relationship to a legitimate governmental purpose."

Today's unanimous NJ Supreme Court ruling is a recognition of the equal needs and common humanity of committed same-sex couples and their kids. The Court said these American families are entitled to equal rights and responsibilities under the law.

Advocates on both sides of the issue believed the state posed best chance for gay marriage to win approval since Massachusetts became the only state to do so in 2003 because the New Jersey Supreme Court has a history of extending civil rights protections.

The high court stopped short of fully approving same-gender marriage and gave lawmakers 180 days to rewrite marriage laws to either include gay couples or create new civil unions. The court ruled that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to the benefits of marriage. Whether those benefits are "marriage" or an equivalent form is left to the democratic process.

The decision led to confusion in the media and among advocates on both sides of the debate. News reports alternatively said the court ruled in favor of or against same-gender marriage. As reporters and legal analyst began to read and fully digest the court's ruling more was clear but the full implications remain yet to be determined.

As the legislature moves now to implement the constitution's demand of equality, we are confident that legislators will see that the right way to end discrimination in marriage is, indeed, to end discrimination in marriage, not repackage it. The easiest next step is not to cobble together a separate new system with two lines at the clerks' office, but rather, to end the exclusion from marriage itself with two simple words, "I do."

New Jersey is one of only five states where there is no law or constitutional amendment specifically barring same-sex marriages. Massachusetts has a law barring out-of- state couples from wedding there if their marriages would not be recognized in their own states. New Jersey has no such law. However, since the court stopped short of actually ruling for gay marriages and sent it back to the legislative branch the real impact of this decision is yet to be determined.

Marriage equality opponents have been quick to raise the concerns but have shown some initial restraint since the legislature must act. Similarly, marriage equality advocates continue to express optimism about the prospects of a clear victory for New Jersey families.

This was not an unanticipated outcome. Now is the time for the New Jersey legislature to show true courage and live up to the state's tradition of inclusion and progressive thinking when about the civil rights of its citizens. It is time to do the right thing and end gay and lesbian couples' exclusion from the institution of marriage.