AN HISTORIC DAY FOR CIVIL RIGHTS -- two laws pass, amazing new momentum for marriage equality

"We don't see this at all as an end point," said Jason Butkowski, a spokesman for Senate President Dick Codey, in today's edition of Gay City News. "The Senator has said all along that he personally supports marriage. In no way is this an end point." Codey joins Senate Majority Leader Bernard Kenny, Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts, Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman and Assembly Speaker Pro Tem Wilfredo Caraballo in supporting marriage equality -- unanimous support from all five of the top leaders in the New Jersey legislature. Since the October 25th decision by the New Jersey Supreme Court, support for a marriage equality bill has quadrupled from six to 24 legislators.

"My guess is that there are enough colleagues that I have where we can take this to the next step," said Senator Loretta Weinberg, also in today's Gay City News. "Perhaps in the near future, though I cannot say exactly when."

At the Assembly Judiciary Committee hearings last Thursday and at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings this past Monday, several other legislators stated publicly that they view civil unions as an imperfect step toward the inevitably of marriage equality in New Jersey.

The new civil unions law establishes a 13-member civil unions review commission, conceived by Garden State Equality, that will investigate how civil unions fall short compared to true marriage equality. The new law mandates that the commission issue public reports every six months, guaranteeing public and political attention to the law's shortcomings. That will be of massive help to Garden State Equality's campaign for 100% marriage equality.

The civil unions review commission, written into the law by Senator Weinberg at Garden State Equality's request, is the first of its kind in America.

Also on this historic day, the New Jersey legislature passed a transgender equality law, making New Jersey the third most populous state in America to outlaw discrimination based on "gender identity or expression." Passage of the transgender equality law has been one of Garden State Equality's top two priorities since the organization was founded in 2004.

Since 2004, in fact, an astonishing 14 LGBTI rights laws have been enacted in New Jersey, including at the statewide and county levels. To pass the transgender equality law, Garden State Equality has proudly partnered with the statewide transgender organization, the Gender Rights Advocacy Association of New Jersey.

"In almost any other state in America, perhaps in almost any other place on earth, LGBTI people would consider this the most legally significant day of their lives," said Steven Goldstein, chair of Garden State Equality. "But in New Jersey, the State That Doesn't Hate, the yardstick of satisfaction is 100% marriage equality for our famlies. We're not there yet, but we're so close now, we can taste it."

Of today's passage of the transgender equality law, Barbra Casbar, political director of the Gender Rights Advocacy Association of New Jersey, said: "We at GRAANJ are particularly pleased by the overwhelming positive vote for the legislation, which proves conclusively that effective education and common sense will tear down the walls of ignorance and discrimination." Lisa Mottet, the transgender rights attorney at the National Lesbian and Gay Task Force, worked tirelessly with GRAANJ and Garden State Equality to make the state's new transgender equality law as strong as any other transgender rights law in the country.

New Jersey's new civil unions law, unlike the Vermont and Connecticut civil unions laws, contains no language referring to marriage as between a man and a woman. New Jersey remains free of a ban on marriage for gay couples both constitutionally and statutorily.

In addition, government check-off forms in New Jersey will have one box for married/civil union, which Garden State Equality also had written into the law. Garden State Equality proposed 20 amendments to the law and legislators accepted 19.

Under the new civil unions law, any same-sex couple registered as domestic partners under New Jersey law will be able to get a civil-union license, an upgrade that will automatically supercede the domestic-partnership certificate. In a less well-known provision of the domestic-partnership act, a law enacted in 2004, straight couples over 62 can also register to be domestic partners -- a provision unaffected by the new civil unions law, which applies only to gay couples.

Since the October 25th Supreme Court decision, several national organizations have partnered with Garden State Equality to produce the most aggressive grassroots campaign New Jersey has ever seen. Lambda Legal, the Human Rights Campaign, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the ACLU, Freedom to Marry and Grassroots Solutions, among other organizations, have been instrumental in Garden State Equality's campaign, which has generated 350,000 e-mails, postcards and phone calls to legislators in just the past six weeks.

These national civil rights organizations, as well as MassEquality, Garden State Equality's counterpart in Massachusetts that has set the standard for statewide advocacy for marriage equality, together have provided Garden State Equality 15 of the country's most talented staff members.

"The cooperation of all these organizations has been stunning," said Steven Goldstein, Garden State Equality chair, "and the state-to-state partnership between Garden State Equality and MassEquality has been unprecedented in America's LGBTI rights movement. Most of all, we must thank our beloved partner Lambda Legal and specifically David Buckel, the lawyer who heads Lambda's marriage project, for bringing us 90 percent of the way toward marriage equality, which wouldn't have happened otherwise. We're ecstatic that all these organizations have expressed a commitment to see us through until we win marriage equality.

"We also thank superb statewide organizations like the ACLU of New Jersey, NJLGC and GRAANJ for working tirelessly over the years to help New Jersey lead the way. Particular gratitude goes to BlueJersey.com, New Jersey's leading political blog, which has galvanized thousands of netroots activists for marriage equality in New Jersey. BlueJersey.com also produced four commercials for marriage equality, and we will help get BlueJersey's first commercial on television shortly." The BlueJersey.com commercials can be viewed online at http://www.bluejersey.com/thinkequal/

Garden State Equality has produced 27 town meetings for marriage equality over the years, with more than 13,000 New Jerseyans having packed houses of worship, schools and community centers to the rafters. Garden State Equality's next town meeting, a statewide rally for marriage equality, will be on the day the civil unions law takes effect in February -- that is, 60 days after Governor Corzine signs the law this month.

Given the growing gap between New Jersey's LGBTI civil rights laws over those of neighboring states New York and Pennsylvania, Garden State Equality will soon unveil an aggressive new marketing campaign to encourage LGBTI New Yorkers and Pennsylvanians to consider making New Jersey their home.

The campaign will market both New Jersey's progressive policies and great quality of life, including top cafes, galleries, theatres and LGBTI-populous cities everywhere. It will be branded, "Jersey Cool. Join the LGBTI boom."