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The Star-Ledger
Public gets its
chance to critique civil unions
BY ROBERT SCHWANEBERG,
nj.com on the Web, September 23, 2007
Gov. Jon Corzine sees gay marriage
coming to New Jersey -- but not next year, when, he says, it could be exploited
to provoke a backlash affecting the presidential race.
Conservatives in New Jersey are pushing to put a proposed constitutional
amendment, prohibiting same-sex marriage, on the 2008 ballot.
Against that backdrop, a state commission this week will hold the first of three
biweekly hearings, scheduled for Wednesday evenings, to examine how well the
state's 7-month-old civil unions law is working.
Civil unions are intended to give same-sex couples all the benefits and
obligations that state law confers through marriage, only under a different
name. The advisory commission is charged with investigating whether civil
unions are living up to that promise and can recommend "additional protections"
for same-sex couples.
Corzine told a group of gay journalists this month he thinks New Jersey will
eventually allow same-sex couples to marry, but that next year is "too early,"
according to his press secretary, Lilo Stainton.
"His fear is the issue will get hijacked by conservatives; it will become a
political tool for conservatives rather than an intelligent debate," Stainton
said. Corzine believes "this is not a debate that New Jersey or the nation
is ready for now, but it's something that should be on the table within a few
years, possibly as early as 2009," she said.
"He has said repeatedly that if the Legislature passes a bill, he would sign it"
to legalize same-sex marriage.
The country's first same-sex marriages were performed in the spring of 2004 in
Massachusetts, by order of that state's highest court. That November,
voters in 11 states amended their constitutions to ban gay marriage. Some
observers believe those ballot questions drew conservative voters to the polls
and helped re-elect President Bush.
Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia,
said Corzine, a Democrat, is "probably right" in guessing Republican
presidential candidates might rail against gay marriage, "but there are so many
other issues for 2008 that I think it will be a lesser issue than in 2004."
Joseph Marbach, chairman of the political science department at Seton Hall
University, said the backlash against Massachusetts already has occurred and
there may not be "a second round." Corzine, he said, "might be overly
cautious in this case."
When the civil union law took effect in February, the gay rights group Garden
State Equality set a goal of legalizing same-sex marriage within two years.
Its chairman, Steven Goldstein, said it was "great news that Governor Corzine,
on the substance of marriage equality, is clearly moving our way. We'll
take a debate on 'when' rather than 'if' any day of the week."
The New Jersey Coalition to Preserve and Protect Marriage has a very different
goal for 2008: getting a proposal on the ballot to define marriage in the
state constitution as the union of one man and one woman.
John Tomicki, the coalition's chairman, said it has collected about 50,000
signatures in support of that proposal. He added that his coalition "sees
no value" in testifying at the upcoming hearings on civil unions.
"It's like rigging a sporting event so Steven Goldstein can come out and say:
'Oh, it's not working. We need full marriage rights.'"
Goldstein, who also serves as vice chairman of the Civil Union Review
Commission, called the law creating civil unions "one of the great civil rights
disasters of all time."
All three of the hearings are scheduled for 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. The
dates and places are:
Wednesday at the New Jersey Law Center on Ryder's Lane (off Route 1) in New
Brunswick.
Oct. 10 in the Dennis Flyer Memorial Theater (in Lincoln Hall) at Camden
County College in Blackwood.
Oct. 24 at Nutley Township Hall, One Kennedy Drive, Nutley.
More information is available on a state Web site (http://www.nj.gov/oag/newsreleases07/pr20070919b.html).
Robert Schwaneberg may be reached at rschwaneberg@starled
ger.com or (609) 989-0324.
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