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New Jersey
Law Journal
Civil
Union Law's Inequities
Fuel Lobbying for
Same-Sex Marriage
By Maria Vogel-Short.
Law.com from the Web, October 5, 2007
State agencies monitoring the rollout
of New Jersey's civil union law are getting an earful of feedback - and none of
it good.
On Sept. 26, the New Jersey Civil Union Review Commission heard from 30
witnesses, all of whom say the law has not abated the unequal treatment given
same-sex couples in the private sector, chiefly as it relates to health
insurance benefits.
Civil rights complaints have also been mounting. Division on Civil Rights
Director J. Frank Vespa-Papaleo says his office has fielded more than 100
inquiries about potential violations of the law, and that six complaints have
been filed so far.
One of them was by Millville resident Steven Nguyen, a registered nurse at the
South Jersey Regional Medical Center, who said his partner was denied medical
coverage because the human resources staff told him state law doesn't require
it.
Robert Kleid, a physician's assistant at MiniMed Care in Jersey City, was denied
coverage for his partner. Kleid said his employer told him that since the
company is headquartered in New York, the civil union law doesn't apply.
A Lake Hopatcong same-sex couple, Donna Templeton and Sandra Powers, complained
that the YMCA of West Morris in Randolph told them that family membership was
only available to a husband-and-wife unit. In September, the YMCA allowed
the couple to join at the family rate, the division says.
The civil union law was signed last December after the state Supreme Court held
in Lewis v. Harris, 188 N.J. 415, that same-sex couples had the same
rights to health care and benefits as heterosexual ones. It took effect
Feb. 20. As of August, 1,514 same-sex civil unions were listed with the
state Registrar of Vital Statistics.
But according to Garden State Equality, an advocacy group that supports equal
rights for same-sex couples, about 20 percent of the couples registered have
been refused insurance or similar benefits.
The feedback has led the New Jersey State Bar Association to conclude that the
only solution that can remove the inequity is a statute allowing same-sex
marriage.
Testifying at the Civil Union Review Commission, State Bar President Lynn
Newsome called the civil union law "a failed experiment" that perpetuates a
second-class legal status for same-sex couples.
State Bar Association Trustee Thomas Prol added that the law is too difficult to
interpret. For example, it is hard to for matrimonial lawyers to determine
whether gay couples can separate under irreconcilable differences, said Prol, an
attorney with Scarinci & Hollenbeck in Lyndhurst who also lectures on civil
unions for the New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education.
Other lawyers said inequities in the law affect estate planning and real estate
law, in addition to matrimonial law. Leslie Farber, chair of the State
Bar's Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender section, testified how a military
employee was unable to obtain medical coverage for his partner while he served
overseas.
Farber also discussed one family's loss of medical coverage after the father had
sexual reassignment surgery. Even though the father and his wife of 20
years remained together, the family unit is considered a civil union, not a
marriage.
Lawyers from Vermont and Massachusetts testified that the marriage designation
helped with getting insurance coverage for same-sex couples.
Beth Robinson, a partner with Langrock Sperry & Wool in Middlebury, Vt.,
described the problems created by the situation in her state, the first to
permit civil unions, where benefits are not unilaterally provided to same-sex
couples.
Robinson described a same-sex couple in which the sole breadwinner died in a car
accident. Their child was denied a Social Security survivor claim because
the federal government doesn't recognize civil unions.
Farber said Vermont's experience is evidence that a civil union law doesn't
work.
"Seven years after the civil union law went into effect in Vermont, unions are
still not recognized as the equivalent of marriage," said Farber, a Montclair
solo.
On the other hand is the experience of Massachusetts, which allows same-sex
marriage.
Lee Swislow, executive director of Gay & Lesbian Advocate & Defenders in Boston,
said benefits became available in 2004, when same-sex couples could legally
marry.
Jodi Weiner, an electrician from Montclair, said the only reason her union, IBEW
Local 456, covered her partner's medical insurance was because she was married
in Massachusetts.
"I am here tonight because my partner Sally and I have lived through the
experience of how the word 'marriage' can indeed make a difference," said
Weiner.
The commission will hold other hearings on Oct. 10 and 24 and issue its first
report in December.
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