The “lame-duck” legislative session in New Jersey began Monday and legislators now have just about seven weeks to pass a marriage-equality bill.
Both chambers of the state legislature need to approve legislation to legalize same-sex marriage in the state before Gov. Jon Corzine’s last day in office, Jan. 19.
Corzine has pledged to sign the bill, but Gov.-elect Chris Christie has said he would veto such a measure.
Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-37th Dist.), the prime sponsor of the Senate marriage-equality bill, told PGN earlier this month that she’d secured a commitment from the chairman of the Judiciary Committee that he would post the bill on the agenda for the first day of the lame-duck session, Nov. 23, but the measure did not come up for debate.
In advance of a possible vote, statewide LGBT organization Garden State Equality has reenergized its efforts to mobilize marriage-equality supporters and gathered about 300 LGBTs and allies Monday morning for a rally at the New Jersey Statehouse, where participants wore shirts with the slogan “Equality, the American Dream.”
Garden State Equality executive director Steven Goldstein said last week that he had an idea when the legislation could be considered but couldn’t discuss the information.
“The bill is going to be heard, and we’re confident that it’s going to pass,” he said.
Garden State Equality recently revamped its Web site and launched an initiative encouraging supporters to donate just three minutes of their time each day to contacting their legislators and pressing them to vote for marriage equality.
The organization took its efforts to the airwaves shortly before Election Day with a commercial that detailed how the state’s 2006 civil-union law fails to provide same-sex couples the same rights as marriage. The ad told the story of one New Jersey couple, Marsha and Louise, who’ve raised four children, two of whom are disabled, with the words, “It won’t affect your marriage, but it will mean everything to them” proclaimed at the end.
The National Organization for Marriage, an antigay group based in Princeton, N.J., which raised considerable funds to oppose same-sex marriage in Maine, California and other states, has also gone on the offensive in the Garden State.
NOM released a radio advertisement before the gubernatorial election urging voters to contact Corzine and their state representatives to tell them: “Don’t mess with marriage.”
The ad features a child telling her father about how she learned in school about a prince who married a prince, and she then exclaims that she wants to marry a princess. The commercial then goes on to detail how legalizing same-sex marriage will lead to it being taught in schools and to opponents of marriage equality having to accept the institution “whether we like it or not.”
“We understand how the National Organization for Marriage works,” Goldstein said. “We’ve studied the National Organization for Marriage’s methods in other states and we’re ready for them.”
Goldstein said NOM and other groups opposed to the bill have tried to popularize the notion that it does not have enough legislative support, which he said is false.
“It’s become part of our opponents’ strategy to portray this as having not enough votes in order to discourage members from voting,” he said. “That is completely, completely fabricated. I guess it’s a clever strategy, but it’s based on process more so than on substance. But the bill is moving forward, and there is going to be marriage equality in New Jersey.”
Weinberg agreed, saying the bills chances of passing before Christie takes office are “excellent.”
Christie, who has said marriage should be “exclusively between one man and one woman,” supports posing the issue to the voters of New Jersey through a ballot initiative, but a poll released last week found that marriage equality appears to have the support of a majority of the state’s voters.
The poll, conducted by Rutgers-Eagleton between Nov. 6-10, found that 46 percent of New Jersey residents were in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage, while 42 percent were opposed and 12 percent were undecided.
“For the third time in a row this year, a poll has found that more people favor marriage equality than not,” Goldstein said. “New Jersey is a progressive state and we’re ready for our legislature to act on marriage equality.”
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].