Despite a veto threat from Governor
Chris Christie, New Jersey senators may introduce a gay marriage
bill.
Last year, a last-minute push to
legalize gay marriage was attempted in the final weeks of Democratic
Governor Jon Corzine's administration, before Christie, a Republican
opposed to gay marriage, took office in mid-January. The effort
failed in the Senate, and gay activists vowed to return to court to
win the right to marry.
In Lewis v. Harris, the New
Jersey Supreme Court unanimously agreed that it is unconstitutional
to deny gay and lesbian couples the rights granted to married
heterosexual couples and ordered the Legislature to remedy the
situation. Lawmakers responded with a civil unions law.
Activists filed a new case after the
high court said it would not revisit Lewis v. Harris.
According to the Star-Ledger,
despite a veto threat from the governor, state Senators Loretta
Weinberg and Ray Lesniak, both Democrats, are proceeding with plans
to reintroduce their bill. Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, who is openly
gay, reintroduced the legislation in the House in June.
The two senators, along with Steven
Goldstein, chairman of Garden State Equality, will meet Friday in New
York with New York State Deputy Secretary for Civil Rights Alphonso
David, who played a prominent role in making New York the sixth state
to legalize gay marriage.
Lesniak told the paper that they are
“leaning toward doing it” and would ask Christie to send with his
veto a “message to the legislature that this vote is a matter of
conscience they have to personally and individually examine in the
override vote.”