N.J. conservatives
plotting moves
if gay marriage is
allowed
By GEOFF MULVIHILL,
AP from Newsday.com on the Web, August 12, 2006
As they await a New Jersey Supreme
Court decision on gay marriage in the Garden State, social conservatives say
they are prepared to take the fight to the ballot box if they lose in the legal
arena.
"If we get to an imminent threat, if we get to the point where marriage is going
to be decided by the court, shouldn't we get to weigh in an issue of such
magnitude?" said Len Deo, president of the New Jersey Family Policy Council.
Like advocates for gay marriage, New Jersey's conservative lobbyists and
lawmakers are gearing up for a political battle in the aftermath of the court's
ruling in the landmark case of Lewis v. Harris, in which seven gay
couples contend not letting them marry is a violation of the state constitution.
A decision could come any time and is expected by Oct. 25, the day before Chief
Justice Deborah T. Poritz turns 70 and is required to retire.
New Jersey is one of only five states without a specific ban on gay marriage.
But municipal clerks in the state cannot grant marriage licenses to same-sex
couples because the state Attorney General's Office has said that same-sex
marriage is not lawful. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit say they should be
able to get marriage licenses.
Whichever side loses in court will be at a disadvantage when they turn to the
political arena to plead their case: The losers will try to persuade
lawmakers to act. The winning side simply can ask the Legislature to do
nothing.
Several of the state's most prominent politicians, including Gov. Jon Corzine,
have said while they do not favor gay marriage, they oppose amending the
constitution to ban it.
That's a position the conservatives would have to overcome in their efforts to
let citizens vote on a constitutional amendment.
Before a measure can get on the ballot, it has to pass both chambers of the
state Legislature with a three-fifths majority or get a simple majority in each
house in two consecutive legislative years.
Garden State Equality, New Jersey's main gay rights organization, has already
been asking lawmakers not to support such an amendment -- and has commitments
from Democratic and some Republican lawmakers.
John Tomicki, the chairman of the New Jersey Coalition to Preserve and Protect
Marriage, said some of those lawmakers would change their minds in the face of
public pressure. He said the key is not convincing them that gay marriage
should be banned but that the public should be able to decide the issue.
"With the entire Legislature up for re-election, they're going to say, 'So
sorry, not interested in having the public vote about this'?" Tomicki said.
So far, voters in all 19 states where a constitutional amendment to define
marriage as being only between one man and one woman has been offered have
approved them.
In gay-friendly and Democratic-leaning New Jersey, the issue has not received
serious discussion in a Legislature that is one of a handful in the nation to
approve domestic partnership benefits for same-sex couples.
And while gay marriage opponents' track record in changing state constitutions
is good, New Jersey has demographics unlike most of the country. While the
people who lead the charge against expanding gay rights in most states are
evangelic Christians, it's a more complicated coalition here:
Conservatives are counting on immigrants and religious blacks who usually vote
Democratic, and hope that the state's large Roman Catholic population falls in
line with church leaders, who oppose gay marriage.
Like elsewhere, conservatives in New Jersey say allowing same-sex marriages
could undermine the traditional family, hurt children, give people special
rights based on their sexual practices and even open the door to allowing
polygamous marriage. They also say the court would be overstepping its
bounds by getting involved in a policy issue that should be the domain of
elected lawmakers. Gay-rights supporters deny all those claims and say the
issue is a matter of civil rights.
A poll by the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University this summer
found that about half the state's voters favor allowing gay marriage and about
the same percentage oppose an amendment to ban it.
The New Jersey Family Policy Council's Deo said a vote would give groups like
his a chance to change people's minds on the issue.
"A lot of people are not paying attention to it because it's not a real issue to
them," he said.
Even in advance of a ruling, conservative lobbyists are mobilizing to persuade
the Legislature to let the people vote -- laying the groundwork for petition
drives, placing newspaper advertisements and lining up local officials to record
messages for a phone campaign.
Ingrid Reed, director of the Eagleton New Jersey Project, said the efforts might
not work in the Garden State.
"I'm not sure that we will see other voters identifying with the more
conservative view and getting mobilized on this issue," Reed said.
Opponents of gay marriage say they know the political fight in New Jersey would
be harder than in most states.
"Just because something's hard to do doesn't mean you don't do it," said William
F. Bolan Jr., who recently retired as executive director of the New Jersey
Catholic Conference.
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