From the Bergen Record

Not marriage, not fair

Editorial

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

ONE HUNDRED days ago, the state's high court ruled that legislators had to give same-sex couples the same rights and benefits as married couples. The Legislature called its solution civil unions. Same-sex couples call it a failure.

Since the law took effect, 852 New Jersey couples have been "civil unionized," an ungainly phrase for an awkward political fix. According to Garden State Equality, a gay rights advocacy organization headed by Teaneck resident Steven Goldstein, as of Tuesday, 114 of those couples have reported that their employers or insurers have refused to recognize their civil unions.

That is almost one in eight couples, and that is unacceptable.

While the state Supreme Court unanimously ruled same-sex couples were entitled to all the benefits of marriage, it did not find that it had the authority to determine what to call it. After 100 days, civil unions are not working. What to call it matters, or as then-state Supreme Court Chief Justice Deborah Poritz said in her dissenting opinion: Language matters.

The Legislature jumped at the chance to pass civil-union legislation. It was an easy way of avoiding a contentious debate over same-sex marriage. State leaders, from Governor Corzine down, did not come out and support same-sex marriage. Perhaps last year Democrats were concerned that expending political capital on same-sex marriage while a closely fought U.S. Senate campaign was being waged was an invitation to conservative Republicans to descend on New Jersey. The possibility of losing one Senate seat was more important than granting equal rights to all New Jerseyans.

In 2007, the races are different. The entire Legislature faces voters in November. Legislators can accept double dipping, holding dual offices, fraud, fiscal waste and pension padding. They draw the line at same-sex marriage.

The 114 same-sex couples who are being denied benefits can take legal action against employers and insurers who refuse to follow the law. But why should they be forced to fight in court what has already been won? Would any heterosexual couple accept a comparable situation?

Language matters because marriage matters. It matters to all couples who willingly enter into a legal union.

When Corzine signed the civil-union bill into law, he said, "When you do the right thing, you can be proud of yourself, and this is one of those moments." Time has proved that it was not "one of those moments." The civil-union law was a halfway measure that treated one group of New Jerseyans as inferior to another.

Rather than bringing clarity to the issue, the Legislature muddled it. And as more states are recognizing some form of same-sex unions, the confusion increases. Marriage is universally recognized; civil unions are not. Similar complaints are being raised in Connecticut, California and Vermont.

With every seat up for election, New Jersey's Legislature will not act this year on changing the law. Next year is a presidential election. That won't be politically convenient either. And in 2009, there are state elections again -- although not for every seat in the Assembly or Senate.

There will always be excuses for doing the wrong thing. The state Supreme Court promised New Jersey gay and lesbian couples that they could enter into legal unions that would be recognized as equal to marriage. That has not happened.