Tag: gay marriage

What’s in a name?

Apparently everything.

The Record today offers a plausible explanation for the low number of civil unions in the month since the new civil union law took effect.

The low turnout speaks volumes about the Legislature’s decision to not allow same-sex couples to marry. Same-sex couples are not excited about being civil-unionized. And that is not surprising.

While civil unions in New Jersey afford couples all the legal rights of marriage, it remains a second-class-citizen demarcation. If it is marriage, call it marriage. It is doubtful that heterosexual couples would find it romantic to say: “I love you. Let’s get unionized.”

Advocates for same-sex marriage believe if the Legislature had opted for marriage rather than civil unions, thousands of same-sex couples would have wed by now.

The same-sex couples I’ve talked with want marriage, but have taken advantage of the law to protect themselves.

I hope the Legislature doesn’t view the numbers in the wrong way.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
The Cranbury Press Blog

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Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Nothing more than a baby step

Alfred Doblin in The Record reminds us that the civil union legislation that was adopted by the state and went into effect at midnight remains, at best, a work in progress. Plenty of gay couples will be able to “unionize” (and I don’t mean join the Teamsters), but they will remain outside the mainstream because they cannot be married like the rest of us.

Discriminatory legislation codifies discrimination. Civil unions that give all the rights of marriage without using the word “marriage” do not give all the rights of marriage. It’s that simple.

On a side note, Doblin makes mincemeat of one of the great canards in this debate — that civil unions and gay marriages will increase health care costs.

(Bogota Mayor Steve) Lonegan says if a municipal employee were to become civil unionized, that could increase his local budget because of the partner’s benefits. If a municipal employee gets married it has the same effect. What’s the alternative? Hiring only celibate, single people? That sounds like the Roman Catholic Church. And they’ve had a few problems with that employment policy of late.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
The Cranbury Press Blog

E-mail me by clicking here.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.