In case you haven't heard yet, the New Jersey Supreme Court made a ruling on Wednesday that called for equal rights to be granted to all citizens, regardless of sexual-orientation. Some are calling this the
next step down the aisle for gays and lesbians.
Here is the press release sent out by
Equality Advocates Penssylvania yesterday.
VICTORY! NEW JERSEY SUPREME COURT RULES FOR EQUALITY
In a groundbreaking decision, the New Jersey Supreme Court
ruled today that lesbian and gay couples must be granted
equal relationship rights under the law.
In the Court's opinion in Lewis v. Harris, New Jersey
Supreme Court Justice Barry Albin stated, "To comply with
the equal protection guarantee...of the New Jersey
Constitution, the State must provide to committed same-sex
couples, on equal terms, the full rights and benefits
enjoyed by heterosexual married couples." The Court gave
the New Jersey legislature 180 days to decide whether to
amend the marriage statutes to include same-sex couples or
enact a parallel structure with all the rights and benefits
of marriage.
Equality Advocates Pennsylvania, formerly the Center for
Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights, praised the decision. "This
is a critical step towards achieving true equality and
justice for lesbian and gay families. We urge the New
Jersey legislature to treat all families equally by granting
marriage for all committed couples," said Stacey Sobel,
Equality Advocates' executive director.
It is unclear at this time what the impact of the decision
will be on Pennsylvania's same-sex couples. It will not,
however, affect the 1996 Pennsylvania Defense of Marriage
Act (DOMA), which prohibits same-sex couples from being
married in this state. That legislation also states that
Pennsylvania will not recognize same-sex marriages from
other states.
Lee Carpenter, the legal director of Equality Advocates
added, "The reality is that thousands of gay and lesbian
Pennsylvanians are involved in committed, loving
relationships, pay their taxes, and contribute to their
communities. However, these citizens are denied the very
basic legal protections that others take for granted, such
as the right to visit a loved one in the hospital or
automatically inherit property. We hope that in the coming
years Pennsylvania will remedy what is clearly an unjust
situation."
# # #
Equality Advocates Pennsylvania is dedicated to achieving
equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
individuals in the Commonwealth through direct legal
services, education and policy reform.
I will be busted for this later, I am sure of it. You have to love that web crawler. But, as a political commentator, I find it hard to keep my mouth shut in this one.
My personal reaction:
This couldn't have happened at a worse time. Call it the Republican October Surprise, but same-sex marriage has once again become the ultimate WMD - Weapon of Mass Distraction. Watch as the religious right jumps onboard the bandwagon, stir up their constituency and flood the voting booths with anti-gay votes instead of pro-political platform votes.
Already, check out the letters to the editors of the
NY Times.
The article itself stated:
The ruling in New Jersey left it to the Legislature to decide whether to legalize gay
marriage. Even so, the threat that gay marriage could become legal energized
conservatives at a time when Republican strategists say that turning out the base could
make the difference between winning and losing on Nov. 7. With many independent
analysts predicting Republicans will lose the House and possibly the Senate, President
Bush’s political team is counting on the party’s sophisticated voter turnout machinery to
hold Democratic advances enough that Republicans can at least maintain control. Read More!Can anyone say "Iraq?"
