New Jersey joins states offering same-sex civil unions
- Feb 19, 2007 - 1
It might not have been marked by the sound of wedding bells, but just past midnight on Feb. 19, 2007, homosexual couples were able to register for a civil union license in the state of New Jersey.
While forty-five states have legal bans on same-sex “marriage,” Massachusetts allows same-sex couples to “marry,” California offers domestic partnerships, and Vermont and Connecticut offer civil unions, as does New Jersey.
Under New Jersey’s civil union law, same-sex couples might not gain the legal title of marriage, but they do secure the rights, including adoption, child custody and ability to make medical decisions for their partner. Since the federal government does not recognize these unions, these couples are not entitled to federal benefits afforded to married couples, such as “married” as a tax filing status.
Homosexual activists have not given up hope that full marriage benefits will someday be extended to same-sex couples, and they are continuing to press for change through political and legal means.
“Marriage is a legal term,” said Marti Rouse of the Human Rights Campaign, a homosexual rights advocacy group. “When more Americans understand that marriage is mostly a legal term, we hope that the institution of marriage will extend marriage equality to same-sex couples so that they can be fully protected under the law.”
“States like New Jersey are taking big steps in the right direction toward full equality,” Rouse said in an ABCNews.com report. “But there’s no full equality until there’s marriage equality.”
State legislatures in Hawaii, New Hampshire, Oregon and Rhode Island are seriously considering bills that would give state residents the right to engage in civil unions.
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1 comments (post your own) feed
1 On Mar 23rd, 2007, at 10:02am, Dan Valdes wrote:
Tony Blair recently said
“I was so struck by it, it was so alive, I remember actually seeing the pictures on television. It is not often that you sort of skip around in my job, I can assure you, But it really the fact that that the people were so happy and the fact that you felt just one major, major change had happened, of which everyone can feel really proud.
There are a whole load of different pieces of legislation, which I will not rehearse here, but what has happened is that the culture of the country has changed in a definable way as a result of it. And here is what I think is really interesting.
The change in the culture and the civilising effect of it has gone far greater than the gay and lesbian community.
In other words, by taking a stand on these issues and by removing prejudice and discrimination, and by enabling people to stand proud as what they are, it has had an impact that I think is far more profound in the way the country thinks about itself.”