In a first for the Garden State, the New Jersey Senate approved a bill Monday to legalize same-sex marriage.
The successful Senate vote began what will be a momentous week for marriage equality in New Jersey, with the Assembly scheduled to vote on the bill Thursday.
The 24-16 Senate vote included support from two Republicans, Sens. Diane Allen and Jennifer Beck, while two Democrats, Sens, Jeff Van Drew and Ronald Rice were opposed.
This is the first time either chamber of the New Jersey legislature approved a marriage-equality measure. In 2009, the Senate rejected such a bill in a 20-14 vote.
Kevin Cathcart, executive director of Lambda Legal, which sued the state, along with Garden State Equality, last year for the right to marry for same-sex couples, said the Senate vote was “huge hurdle.”
“It is a powerful message when those who once opposed marriage equality for same-sex couples have changed their mind — and that is what we saw in the New Jersey Senate,” Cathcart said.
Although the Assembly is expected to also approve the measure this week, Gov. Chris Christie has pledged to veto it, which would send the bill back to lawmakers to muster enough votes — 27 in the Senate and 54 in the Assembly — for an override.
The current legislative session doesn’t wrap up until January 2014, so legislators could have nearly two years to round up enough support for another vote.
The Senate vote is the latest in a series of wins for marriage equality — such as last week’s court ruling in California that affirmed the unconstitutionality of Proposition 8 and this week’s adoption of a marriage-equality bill in Washington.
“As we have seen all across the country, history is on our side,” Cathcart said. “It is critical that we continue to tell our stories in our neighborhoods, in legislatures and in court to help change hearts and minds and move history forward.”
In announcing his intent to veto the bill, Christie also recommended that the issue be put to New Jersey residents in a voter referendum, a directive that Republican Sen. Christopher Bateman followed last week with his bill to put marriage equality to a vote.
However, the Democratic leadership in both chambers has soundly denied that such a bill would ever see fruition.
A report released earlier this month by LGBT thinktank the Williams Institute found that legalizing same-sex marriage in New Jersey would bring the state $48-$119 million in its first three years.
New Jersey has offered same-sex couples civil unions since 2006, but marriage-equality proponents say the current law creates a second-class status.
Elena Quinones, one of the plaintiffs in the current suit against New Jersey, said she and her partner have seen that confusion firsthand.
“I’ve been with my spouse for nine years but when I say I have a civil union, no one knows what that means,” she said. “We need marriage equality because no family should have to walk around with a binder full of papers justifying themselves to everyone the way that we do.”