The Civil Unions Review Commission report to be issued tomorrow makes painfully clear that civil unions aren't providing equality for New Jersey families. They simply don't work, and no amount of tweaking, phone calls and letters from the Governor, or lapse of time can fix a fundamentally flawed system explicitly designed to set up a separate, second-class status of citizens.
The CURC's report is based in part on testimony from real families that have been denied equality as a result of the Civil Union Act. That testimony spanned many hours over the course of three public hearings, but the 21 page report contains just a fraction of those stories.
But anyone who doubts how real this problem is can see for themselves by visiting CivilUnionsDon'tWork.com. It's a new website by Garden State Equality that contains more than 80 youtube videos with over 8 hours of testimony on how civil unions have affected New Jersey families. Check it out, and then tell your legislators that it's time for marriage equality.
I attended the public hearing in New Brunswick, and I thought this was one of the more moving stories:
