Senate Panel in N.J. Approves Gay Marriage Bill

Senate Panel in N.J. Approves Gay Marriage Bill
By DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: December 7, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/nyregion/08marriage.html?th&emc=th


TRENTON — The battle over same-sex marriage in New Jersey headed toward a legislative showdown Monday night, when a bill that would allow such unions narrowly cleared a key legislative committee and was set for a vote by the full State Senate.

The 7-to-6 vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee — which came after years of efforts by gay rights advocates and a day of emotionally charged testimony by dozens of supporters and opponents of the bill — was the first time any legislative body in the state had ever approved a gay marriage bill. The approval brought cheers from hundreds of supporters who crammed the State House committee room.

But the measure faces an uphill fight when it is put up for a vote on Thursday before the full Senate, where even supporters concede that they do not yet have the 21 votes needed to pass it. If it does pass, it will go to the Assembly, where passage is considered more likely.

Speaking to jubilant supporters after the vote, Steven Goldstein, executive director of Garden State Equality, said that gay rights advocates had a lot of work to do in the next 72 hours, but said that momentum and history were on their side.

“The marriage-equality movement in America starts again right here,” Mr. Goldstein said, as the crowd erupted with, “Right here.”

But opponents of the bill said they had expected the committee to approve it and were confident that it would be defeated when it reached the Senate floor.

“We’ve got a long way to go,” said Seriah Rein of the Council on the American Family. “And the will of the people, who do not support this, will be heard in the end.”

After the New York State Senate rejected a gay marriage bill last week, the front line in the national battle over same-sex marriage shifted to New Jersey. And the uncertain fate of the bill there, in one of the most liberal states, has cheered many conservatives.

Passage of the bill, considered a fait accompli by many legislators as recently as October, has been in jeopardy since Gov. Jon S. Corzine, a Democrat who supports gay marriage, was defeated in the election last month. That loss rattled some Democratic legislators who began to worry about riling religious and social conservatives by supporting a controversial social measure at a time of economic distress.

Mr. Corzine, who pledged to sign a same-sex marriage bill, will be succeeded by Christopher J. Christie, an opponent. So advocates have been pushing furiously to win approval of the bill before the transfer of power on Jan. 19, and some lawmakers said the size and exuberance of the crowd of spectators at the State House was unlike anything they had seen since a fight over banning assault weapons in the early 1990s.

More than 1,000 supporters and opponents converged on the Capitol on Monday, besieging lawmakers with raucous lobbying and solemn appeals to history and Scripture.

The bill’s sponsor, Senator Loretta Weinberg, introduced the measure by tearfully invoking her 40-year marriage to her late husband, Irwin.

Julian Bond, chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, cast the issue as the next front in the battle for racial equality and women’s rights.

“Gay rights are civil rights,” Mr. Bond said, invoking during his testimony the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the women’s suffrage movement and the abolition of slavery.

But opponents of the bill said same-sex marriage was an affront to religious tradition and natural law. Patrick Branigan, executive director of the New Jersey Catholic Conference, said that although Catholic teaching opposes discrimination based on sexual orientation, church leaders believe that New Jersey’s current civil union law adequately protects the rights of gay people without endangering an institution that many religions hold sacred.

“Marriage is a unique natural institution, and it is always between one man and one woman,” he said.

New Jersey law currently permits civil unions, but many gay rights advocates say it is a failure because it does not provide the same protections as a civil marriage, like the right to visit a partner in the hospital or to have coverage on a family insurance policy.

Marsha Shapiro and Louise Walpin, a gay couple who have been together for 20 years, said that despite their civil union, they have faced job discrimination and been repeatedly denied insurance benefits. “The State of New Jersey has promised us the right to equal legal protection,” said Ms. Walpin, 58. “Our family has suffered enough. Please support us and give us the legal protection that we need.”

Opponents of the measure argued that the issue was so personal that it should be put before voters in a referendum.

John Tomicki, a leader of the Coalition to Preserve and Protect Marriage, said hundreds of volunteers were in Trenton to lobby against the bill and had gathered more than 300,000 signatures on petitions urging the Legislature to reject it.

Six Democrats voted for the bill, along with one Republican, William Baroni of Mercer. The chairman of the committee, Paul Sarlo of Bergen, a Democrat, voted against the measure. Mr. Sarlo said he was satisfied that the committee had come to a bipartisan decision. He said that the bill still faced resistance in the Senate.

“This bill still has a long, long way to go,” he said.