Posted: Friday, 19 March 2010 5:08AM
Gay Rights Groups Return To Court For Marriage Equality
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Four years after suing the state for marriage rights, six gay couples are taking their case back to court in an effort to strike down New Jersey's civil union law in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage.
The six couples, represented by the gay rights groups Lambda Legal, Thursday filed a motion in State Supreme Court, arguing that in health care settings, work, school, and business transactions, civil unions don't offer the same protection that marriage would.
"We want the court on the basis of the evidence presented to order full equality, marriage equality, access to marriage for lesbians and gay men in New Jersey," Lambda Legal's deputy legal director Hayley Gorenberg. "Despite civil unions our plaintiffs and other people in New Jersey are still facing confusion and discrimination in health care settings."
She said gay couples routinely run into problems at hospitals.
"It could be everything from filling out a form where it's not understood what a civil union partner is, to an urgent situation where somebody is being taken in for anesthesia," said Gorenberg. "Nobody understands who the civil union partner is, what that person's rights and responsibilities are. They're not recognized, and it's terrifying and it's dangerous."
She called civil unions "a government-approved invitation to discriminate."
Opponents of same-sex marriage hadn't yet decided on a strategy to fight this latest attempt to legalize it in New Jersey. The State Supreme Court may reject, among several possible actions, Lambda Legal's motion.
"If the Supreme Court accepts, it would reopen the Lewis v. Harris case. Because of that we've been talking with the Alliance Defense Fund and a number of other legal entities and we?re ready to help wherever possible," said Len Deo, president of the New Jersey Family Policy Council.
He disputed the plaintiffs' argument that civil unions are ineffective.
"From the stand point of looking at the numbers, the civil union law has done what the Legislature intended it to do. There's 4,100 civil union couples and of those only 12 have filed formal complaints," he said. "Most of the stories that it's not working are anecdotal stories that can't be backed up with facts."
In 2006 the state's high court ordered the Legislature to write legislation that would protect gays' rights without using the word "marriage." Thus, the Legislature enacted the civil union law.
"The only way the same-sex couples are going to get the word marriage is if they can keep shouting the same old, same old complaints that [civil unions] is not working, but the evidence is not on their side," said Deo.
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