New Jersey Senate Refuses to End Exclusion From Marriage, Flunking the Constitutional Command of Equality

Freedom to Marry
January 7, 2010

Lambda Legal and Garden State Equality Going Back to Court to Seek
Freedom to Marry

Statement by Evan Wolfson, executive director of Freedom to Marry and author of Why Marriage Matters: America, Equality and Gay People's Right to Marry, following the New Jersey Senate’s failure to provide equal protection to same-sex couples in accordance with the unanimous New Jersey Supreme Court ruling of 2006:

Today the New Jersey Senate failed to do right by the New Jersey families harmed by exclusion from marriage, and the majority of the New Jersey public who support ending the denial of marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Legislators themselves, even opponents, have confirmed that the civil union law does not work to protect and support those families, and is no substitute for the freedom to marry. Freedom to Marry applauds Garden State Equality’s and Lambda Legal’s announcement that they are going back to court to fulfill the constitutional command of equality and secure the freedom to marry for committed couples in New Jersey. [Link]