Gay marriage vote delayed in NJ Senate

[Cornus]

TRENTON — A much-anticipated vote on gay marriage in New Jersey has been put off indefinitely amid rising speculation that it would have gone down to defeat on Thursday.

The Marriage Equality Act was hastily pulled from the Senate vote schedule at the request of its sponsors, Sens. Ray Lesniak and Loretta Weinberg. Late Wednesday, Senate President Richard J. Codey, who controls the Senate agenda, agreed.

Proponents of the legislation, which would make New Jersey one of a handful of states to allow same-sex couples to marry, said they want the bill to receive parallel consideration in the Assembly, and give lawmakers more time to consider an amendment strengthening the religious exemption.

"They indicated they wanted more time to study the bill,'' said Steven Goldstein, chairman of the gay rights group Garden State Equality. "It's fine with us.''

http://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/20091209/STATE/91209209/Gay+marriage+vote+delayed+in+NJ+Senate

[racaulk]

1. Both houses of the NJ legislature are running out of time.

They have a little over a month to get this right. Let's hope they don't fail us like NY did.

[RetiredTrotskyite]

2. Unfortunately...

I think we had best be prepared for another let-down. I really hoped that New Jersey would end up on the list of a handful of states who have done the right thing by making marriage equality legal, but now more than ever I believe that marriage equality will have to come through the courts, specifically the SCOTUS. It seems that if marriage equality is enacted by the legislature and signed by the governor, or the courts have ordered states to implement marriage equality, the fundie homophobic element always manages to get it on a referendum (at least in those states that allow the referendum process). Then they lie though the teeth about marriage equality and get the law rescinded. Aside from the fact that civil rights should NEVER be voted on, these referendums are, IMHO, unconstitutional since they violate the "Equal Protection" and "Full Faith and Credit" clauses not to mention the separation of Church and State.

I'm glad that Olsen and Bois are taking a challenge to the SCOTUS. Marriage equality may not be imposed by the Court this time around, but some day it will. When that day comes, the fundies can just bite me.