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GayPASG was organized in May 1993 following the effort to amend New Jersey’s Law
Against Discrimination (LAD) to include Sexual Orientation when it became
evident the Gay Community was not going to follow up after we became the fifth
state to have a Gay Civil Rights Law. The Task Force for Same-Sex Civil
marriage was organized in 1997 after a Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was
introduced in the New Jersey Legislature. We worked diligently with the ACLU,
NOW-NJ and the community members who joined the Task Force to keep the NJ-DOMA
legislation from coming to the floor for a vote.
One of the reasons for our feeling so strongly about the LAD was that we knew
our schools were not safe for gay students or teachers. Our position was, and
remains, that ALL SCHOOLS SHOULD BE SAFE PLACES WHERE ALL CHILDREN CAN ACHIEVE
THEIR PERSONAL BEST IN ALL AREAS.
Same-Sex Civil Marriage is a very personal issue with us since we are a gay
couple who made a commitment to share our lives in 1987. We were joined in
Civil Union in Vermont on June 2, 2000, registered for Domestic Partnership in
New Jersey on July 12, 2004, and were joined in Civil Marriage in Canada on
September 10, 2004.
We were criticized for focusing directly on Civil Marriage when a number of
people in the state were interested in working only for Domestic Partnership
Benefits (DPB). We saw that as a step toward marriage but legislating
second-class citizenship. Our position is clear. CIVIL MARRIAGE IS A CIVIL
CONTRACT BETWEEN TWO ADULTS given license by the state. It is not a religious
sacrament. The Supreme Courts in Hawai’i, Alaska Vermont and California have
ruled that their states discriminated by not authorizing marriage for gay
couples with Massachusetts implementing its decision by allowing same-sex
marriages. We will continue our fight to claim America’s Promise of LIBERTY AND
JUSTICE FOR ALL and hope that the case now pending in the New Jersey Supreme
Court will support full Civil Marriage.
We continue the struggle for
basic Civil and Human Rights. We were in Albany, New York on July 21-23, 2006
for the National NOW Conference and enjoyed the full event but especially
the march from the hotel to the Capital Steps for a rally for NOW’s EQUAL
MARRIAGE effort.
We will be at the New Jersey
Democratic State Committee 12th Annual State Conference at
Bally’s Resort and Casino, Atlantic City on September 7-9, 2006.
GayPASG is proud to be a
sponsor of the 58th Annual International Association of
Official Human Rights Agencies (IAOHRA) at the Trump Plaza Hotel,
Atlantic City, New Jersey on September 12-15, 2006.
GayPASG was co-founded
and is sponsored by Messrs. Richard J. Harrison and John Crowell Campbell. Rich
is Director, Applications Development Information Technology for HBO in New York
City. John is a Commissioner on the New Jersey Commission on Civil Rights.
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