Even in the midst of the most intense civil rights battle ever waged in New Jersey, there are junctures to pause, reflect and express gratitude. Today, at the end of an historic week, is one such juncture.
This week, we made in history and you made it happen. If I could reach out through the computer screen to give you a hug of appreciation right now, I would. For the first time in New Jersey, a legislative body - the Senate Judiciary Committee - passed a marriage equality bill. The bill now moves forward in the legislature.
More than 4,000 pro-marriage equality activists from Garden State Equality and other organizations came to the State House in the last two weeks. That includes more than 1,300 of us who were there last Monday, the day of the Judiciary Committee vote.
It's the culmination of perhaps the most meteoric growth any organization in New Jersey has ever experienced. One year ago, Garden State Equality had 14,000 core members. Today we have more than 55,000 core members as measured by a very high standard - those of you who have taken two actions in the last six months for equality.
Our numbers and our passion have spun legislators' heads. Several told us they'd never seen a show of force like ours collectively - and that it made all the difference in the world.
They're right. Look at the external obstacles, not of our doing, we've had to overcome in the last month: Governor Corzine, whose administration is working hard for equality and deserves our deepest gratitude, unfortunately lost his election. That gave marriage equality opponents a phony pretext with some legislators.
No one in his or her right mind believes November's election had anything to do with marriage equality. With this economy, it was an impossible year for incumbents everywhere. Parenthetically, if you add up the votes for the gubernatorial candidates who favored marriage equality versus those who didn't, we won a majority.
Then last week, there was the New York loss, another factor our opponents threw in our face. Heck, I grew up in New York. The Hudson River might as well be a thousand miles wide. On LGBT rights, New Jersey is a leader.
Any other state's equality movement might have shriveled after that one-two punch. Many of the pundits speculated that a committee wouldn't even hear our bill.
But like the true New Jerseyans we are, we got up off the mat, summoned our strength, got that Committee hearing and won it.
So much about living and thriving, whether for an individual, organization or entire community, is not whether you avoid the punches life brings you. It's about whether you get up from the mat and never stop trying to do what's right.
Resilience is everything, and our community, which has faced discrimination in hospitals and from employers at the hands of the civil union law, and must also deal with rejection from society - sometimes even from our own families - is the most resilient in the world.
We're still standing and we will win marriage equality.
Standing at the front of the line for equality are many people and organizations besides Garden State Equality who richly deserve recognition. We'll recognize all our heroes soon enough. But for now, let's not let another day pass without expressing our love to the prime Senate sponsors of the marriage equality bill, Loretta Weinberg and Raymond Lesniak, who have gotten the bill this far.
Loretta, of course, is our guardian angel - the greatest champion of equality New Jersey has ever seen. I can't even begin to tell you how hard she's worked for this legislation. Her place in our hearts is irreplaceable. Raymond has the courage of his convictions like few others we've worked with: When he decides something is the correct thing to do to make our society a kinder, fairer place, nothing stops him.
And let's not forget Senator Bill Baroni, the Republican who voted for the bill in the Senate Judiciary Committee. At the committee, as he announced "I am the first legislator in state history to say, 'On the issue of marriage equality, I vote yes,'" chills went down our spines and our feet rose in ovation.
I'd like to thank one organization among many - I'll get to the others in the coming days - for being our tireless partners for equality. Blue Jersey, the blog of the state's progressive activist community, has been the unwavering, pure and passionate voice for marriage equality on the web. If you don't regularly visit Blue Jersey - it's at www.BlueJersey.com - you must. There you will find some of the most effective champions of marriage equality anywhere in America.
Special thanks go to all the Blue Jersey front-pagers, including Blue Jersey's editorial director Rosi Efthim.
Now if I may digress. In the heat of a campaign, people on both sides get, well, heated. This week, activists protested in front of legislators' homes and at personal events - yes, those on the other side did it too. That's a no-no for everyone. People who give their lives to public service, whether they agree with us or not, are entitled to zones of privacy.
It so happened that some protesters in front of homes wore Garden State Equality shirts or buttons. As I wrote in an apology to one legislator: "I don't care how important an issue is to any one individual, organization or greater community. Garden State Equality will never tolerate that kind of invasion of personal privacy."
From recent Garden State Equality events, more than 10,000 people now have our Equality buttons and more than 4,000 people have our Equality t-shirts. As one newspaper reported today, I had emailed some not to hold a vigil at a legislator's house when I found out about it, and they went forth anyway - wearing Garden State Equality shirts and making it look like we endorsed the protest.
Here's the interesting thing about civil rights organizations in America: When an organization becomes so big and fulfills its founder's dreams, it grows out of the founder's control. That's the way it should be. A successful organization evolves into a movement where thousands of flowers bloom on their own, changing from a top-down structure to an true grassroots phenomenon.
I wish I personally knew all of our 55,000 members. I knew each of our members by name and face for the first couple of years.
But now, by God, we're not just an organization anymore. We're a movement - the most passionate and active civil rights movement New Jersey has seen in the lifetimes of many of us. With that comes a responsibility for smart activism that goes up to the line but never crosses it. We must always hold ourselves to a higher standard.
Passion for our cause and respect for one another, even for our opponents and for those on the fence, are not mutually exclusive. That combination has been a hallmark of Garden State Equality's success. Since our organization's founding in 2004, New Jersey has enacted 210 LGBT civil rights laws at the state, county and local levels - a national record.
Thus dear members, New Jersey owes its leadership in LGBT civil rights to each of you.
On behalf of all of us on Garden State Equality's board of directors, I wish you and yours a happy holiday season, including with the start of Chanukah tonight.
Chag urim sameach, Eid Mubarak, Happy Kwanzaa and Merry Christmas!
With love and appreciation,
Steven Goldstein
Chair and CEO
Garden State Equality
PS Want to give someone a great holiday gift? Make a donation to Garden State Equality in someone else's honor at www.GardenStateEquality.org. After you make a donation, email us at HolidayGift@GardenStateEquality.org with the honoree's name and email, and we'll email the person that you made a donation in his or her honor.
