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The New York Times
U.S.
Report Finds Problems
With NJ Gay Unions
By AP from
nytimes.com on the Web, February 17, 2008
MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. Feb. 16 --
A commission established to study same-sex civil unions in New Jersey has found
in its first report that civil unions create a ''second-class status'' for gay
couples, rather than giving them equality.
The report stops short of recommending that the state allow gay marriage.
But it does find that gay couples in Massachusetts, the only state that now
allows same-sex marriage, do not experience some of the legal complications that
those in New Jersey do.
The Associated Press obtained a copy of the initial report, which was scheduled
to be made public Tuesday, the first anniversary of the state's first civil
unions.
State lawmakers made New Jersey the third state to offer civil unions with a law
adopted in 2006 in reaction to a state Supreme Court ruling that year that found
gay couples were entitled to the same legal protections as married couples.
The civil union law sought to give gay couples those benefits, but not the title
of marriage. As a part of the same law, the review commission was created
to look into whether it was working.
Gay rights advocates say the civil unions do not deliver and have pledged to
push lawmakers to vote to allow marriage. Gov. Jon S. Corzine has said he
would be willing to sign such a bill into law but doesn't want the issue to be
taken up before the presidential election in November.
The activists say civil unions, in practice, do not offer the legal protections
that marriage does. The commission largely agreed with them.
The commission held three public hearings last year at which the majority of the
testimony came from people who were in civil unions and said they were still not
being treated the way married couples are by government agencies, employers and
others.
For instance, the commission found that many companies in the state that are
self-insured -- and therefore are regulated by federal, rather than state, law
-- refuse to provide health insurance to the partners of their employees.
While employers in Massachusetts could legally do the same thing, most do not,
according to the report.
The commission also finds that many people in the state do not understand civil
unions, which create a ''second-class status.''
The commission's report says the misunderstanding of civil unions makes it more
difficult for a child to grow up in New Jersey with gay parents, or to be gay
themselves.
Through Jan. 19, 2,329 couples had received civil union licenses, according to
the state Health and Senior Services Department.
Some social conservatives have said the commission is slanted in favor of
allowing gay marriage, and opponents of gay marriage have been pushing back in
New Jersey.
Roman Catholic churches around the state have been planning special prayers on
marriage for Sunday. A major aim is to promote marriage as being between
only a man and a woman.
A conservative Princeton group, the National Organization for Marriage, has
aired radio commercials that say allowing gay marriage would undermine some
religious teachings that homosexuality is wrong.
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