Marriage Equality in New Jersey 3

Here is the contents of an e-mail notice that I received from the New Jersey Association UCC listserve.

URGENT: The New Jersey Senate is deferring tomorrow (Thursday's) vote on the marriage equality bill at the request of bill sponsors Senators Loretta Weinberg and Raymond Lesniak.

Garden State Equality members will "still meeting in Trenton tomorrow at 9:30 am for what will now be a lobby day.

Senators Weinberg and Lesniak want to give the Assembly a chance to weigh in, beginning with an Assembly hearing. Senators Weinberg and Lesniak also believe, correctly so, that the more than 150 people who wanted to testify at this past Monday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, but could not because the
hearing ran eight hours long, should have a chance to testify before the legislature.

Below is the statement from the prime sponsor of the marriage equality bill, Senator Loretta Weinberg.
This afternoon, Senator Ray Lesniak and I requested that Senate President Richard J. Codey hold Senate Bill 1967. We also requested that Speaker Joseph Roberts schedule a meeting for the Assembly Judiciary Committee on A2978, popularly known as the Freedom of Religion and Equality in Civil Marriage Act.

In light of the Senate Judiciary Committee?s historic passage of S1967, Senator Lesniak and I believe that the public needs another opportunity to engage legislators on this issue. Moreover, the Senate committee has substantially amended its version to include sweeping, additional protections for religious institutions. We believe that members of the public need to be afforded an additional opportunity to debate this new
provision as well.

Tuesday?s Senate hearing was extraordinary. Hundreds of citizens lined up outside the committee chambers to offer testimony on behalf of, and in opposition to, the proposed legislation. Under the leadership of Chairman Sarlo, who conducted one of the most houghtful and fair-minded hearings in which either of us has
ever participated, the committee spent seven hours hearing from scores of New Jerseyans. We had to turn away another 150 witnesses for want of time. In addition to the committee hearing, thousands of citizens, and dozens of religious and secular organizations, have engaged our members in a thoughtful and productive dialogue on marriage equality.

Accordingly, as sponsors of S1967, we asked Senator Codey to postpone full Senate consideration of the Marriage Equality Act until the Assembly Speaker has an opportunity to review scheduling the Assembly Judiciary Committee for a hearing.

We thank Senator Codey for his leadership. Marriage equality is a difficult and challenging question for members from both sides of the aisle. Throughout this debate, he has been balanced and evenhanded in his treatment of all Senators. For this, he has our deepest gratitude. #

Jeannette Brown

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Marriage Equality in New Jersey 2

OK Still we wait the verdit from the Senate Judiciary Committee.  Three hundred people came to the hearing today.  As the reporter from the Star Ledger said. without their identifying tee shirts etc it was hard to tell the pro's from the con's.  In fact according to the columnist  that (when) "the question that is asked by millions of people on this issue. And that question is, "What’s the big deal?""


"Hundreds of people came today to the Statehouse Annex Building to attend a Senate Judiciary Hearing on gay marriage.In three polls before the November gubernatorial election -- by Monmouth and Quinnipiac universities and the Eagleton Institute at Rutgers -- only one or two percent of New Jerseyans saw gay marriage as an important issue. That means 98 or 99 percent didn’t"
This article also has a link to the Star Ledger coverage of the issue.

Late edition.  The bill was voted out of the Judiciary Committee late last night.  Now for a full vote in the Senate.   Contact your Senators!
Jeannette

Marriage Equality in New Jersey

Christ Church is an Open and Affirming Church.  This means we support  and welcome Gay and Lesbian members.  New Jersey currently has a Civil Union law which means our Gay and Lesbian members may be joined in our church and at least one couple has celebrated their Civil Union in our church.
This week the senante of New Jersey will be taking up legislation to leagalize same sex Marriaage in New Jersey.
A petition was circulated and "signed by more than 2,300 Democratic officials, advocates and residents has helped sway members of the State Senate Judiciary Committee.'  The State Senate Judiciary Committee will take up the bil tomorrow Monday December 7th.  According to the New York Times article of December 4th "A large turnout for the vote is expected by those on both sides of the issue; gay couples are planning to testify about what they believe are shortcomings in the state’s civil union law, which was passed in 2006."
It is expected that this bill will be passed by the Judiciary Committee and voted on the full Senate later this week.
There is opposition from "the New Jersey Catholic Conference (that) helped deliver about 156,000 signatures asking legislators to enforce the civil union law instead of approving same-sex marriage.
Since Christ Church belongs to the United Church of Christ, here's with what the UCC has to say about marriage equality: "On July 4, 2005, at the 25th General Synod of the United Church of Christ in Atlanta, delegates voted to adopt the resolution, "Equal Marriage Rights for All" The resources below are provided to help facilitate conversations and study throughout the church and society on this complex and challenging matter which has important implications for individuals, families and the wider community. They are intended to get people of faith talking about the purposes of marriage, looking more closely at how marriage has evolved and changed through time biblically and socially, exploring the theology of marriage, and critically discerning the appropriate roles for the church and the state in marriage."  Here is the full article about marriage equality from the UCC.
The link contains resources and information about the topic.  As I said in church today, we need to pray for this and contact out New Jersey State Senators, that we support the idea of marriage equality and that they should vote for this in New Jersey.
Jeannette Brown