Momentum Builds for Marriage Equality: Sen Lesniak Asks "Why Not?"

by: Juan Melli

Thu Aug 16, 2007 at 10:48:28 AM EDT

Civil unions in New Jersey give committed gay couples the same rights as heterosexual married couples. Except the right to get "married". The very law that gives these loving couples the rights of marriage deprives them of the loving feeling of being married. Outcasts only because of their love for each other.

Allowing gay couples to marry is not going to repair the fabric of society, but it's not going to tear it apart either.

To paraphrase John Lennon, let's give love a chance. We might just find out that it works.

But in a joint statement, Richard J. Codey, the Senate president, and Joseph J. Roberts Jr., the Assembly speaker, indicated that Democrats would not go the extra step of defining the new legal partnership as a marriage.

Another top Democrat, Senator Raymond J. Lesniak of Union County, echoed that point. He said that he and other members of the party's caucus had discussed a compromise, which would extend the marriage rights to gay couples but classify their relationships as ''civil unions.''

''Marriage has been a religious institution adopted by the government and a lot of religions have defined it in a way that that excludes gays,'' Mr. Lesniak said. ''That's not what the government does, and the court clearly demands that we offer gay couples the same rights and obligations that heterosexual couples have under our marriage laws. But we can do it in a way that respects people's religious beliefs.''