The National Organization for Marriage’s national tour to fight marriage equality brought the agency to New Jersey this week, where they were met with a large counter-protest.
Supporters of Garden State Equality turned out Tuesday at the Statehouse in Trenton, outnumbering the crowd of about 80 NOM supporters, who carried signs bearing such messages as “Equality is 1 Man + 1 Woman.”
The opponents of marriage equality stood outside and listened to such speakers as Bishop John Smith of the Catholic Diocese of Trenton, NOM executive director Brian Brown and Jennifer Roback Morse, president of The Ruth Institute, an antigay public-policy agency funded by NOM.
LGBTs and allies kept their distance and gathered inside the Statehouse Annex, where they discussed the fight for marriage equality in the Garden State.
During the forum, which featured remarks by same-sex couples and children raised by same-sex parents, Garden State Equality chairman Steven Goldstein played a video the agency compiled that includes comments from state legislators who voted against marriage equality but who noted that the state’s civil-union law is ineffective.
Civil unions have been legal for same-sex couples in New Jersey since 2006, but a 2008 report by the New Jersey Civil Union Review Commission found that many couples were still being denied rights and recommended full marriage equality.
In January, the New Jersey Senate defeated a bill that would have legalized same-sex marriage. Republican Gov. Chris Christie — who took the helm of the state from former Gov. Jon Corzine, a marriage-equality supporter — has said he would oppose any efforts to legalize same-sex marriage during his time in office.
The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled in 2006 that same-sex couples were entitled to the same rights and obligations as heterosexual couples and mandated that state lawmakers enact legislation accordingly, resulting in the civil-union law.
The group of same-sex couples who filed the initial suit returned to court earlier this year, asking the state’s top court to revisit its decision and grant full marriage equality.
The court has not yet announced whether it would take the case.
NOM’s Summer for Marriage Tour, which kicked off earlier this month, is visiting 19 states and 23 cities across the country. The organization will hit Pennsylvania next month, with a rally at the State Capitol in Harrisburg at noon Aug. 13.
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].