Ok, so maybe the title of the post is a bit provocative. What New Jersey through its elected state representatives has done today is enact a civil unions statute in an attempt to give same-sex (civilly united) couples in that state equal state recognition, rights and responsibilities that opposite-sex (married) couples now enjoy in response to a landmark ruling by the New Jersey State Supreme Court issued on October 25. The vote Thursday was 23-12 in the State Senate and 56-19 in the State Assembly. Governor Jon S. Corzine has said he will sign the bill into law. New Jersey became the third state after Vermont (2000) and Connecticut (2005) to enact a civil unions statute legislatively. California's comprehensive domestic partnership statute is pretty close, but is not called a civil union. As I (and many others) have pointed out, civil unions are not the same thing as marriage. Separate is NOT equal.
Interestingly (feeling guilty?) the New Jersey legislature also passed a bill to add "gender identity of expression" to the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination.
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