September 27, 2007
One More Time: Civil Unions Aren’t As Good As Marriage. Period.
Reports AP:
NJ Civil Unions Fall Short, Panel Told
New Jersey’s civil unions law has failed to provide all the benefits of marriage to at least one in five same-sex couples, a gay rights group told a panel Wednesday that will report its findings to the governor and state Legislature.
More than 300 of the 1,514 same-sex couples who have joined in civil unions have complained to Garden State Equality, the state’s leading gay rights group, about employers denying them benefits under the law, said David M. Smith, the group’s deputy director.
. . .
Those appearing before the Civil Union Review Commission included parents of gay adults, gay rights advocates, lawyers and gay couples, some with children in tow. All urged the Legislature to change the law to include the word “marriage,” and no one spoke in favor of reducing gay couples’ rights.
. . .
“Calling our relationship and our legal status a civil union, I believe, gives my company an easy out,” Ross said. “Calling it what it is - a marriage - makes denial of those benefits obvious for what it is: discrimination.”
. . .
“This is not a privilege, this is not a right, this is about justice,” said Tom Barbera, a labor leader in Massachusetts, the only state that allows same-sex couples to marry, a right created by the top court in that state.
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