In the meadow we can build a snowman,
Then pretend that he is Parson Brown*He’ll say: Are you married?
We’ll say: No man,
But you can do the job
When you’re in Hoboken or Dubuque
. . . assuming the Iowa Supreme Court and the New Jersey legislature do the right thing.
The Iowa Supreme Court today heard oral arguments in a case that could give same-sex couples the right to marry in the Hawkeye State. Deliberations may take several months, however.
In late-breaking news tonight, however, comes word that the New Jersey Civil Union Review Commission has completed its final report, which says the civil union law “invites and encourages harm to same-sex couples and their children” and cites “overwhelming evidence” the civil union law will never provide equality with the passage of time. The report will be posted at 10:00 am ET Wednesday, December 10, 2008 at http://www.nj.gov/oag/dcr/curc.html.
As a sometime resident of the Garden State, and with friends still there, this is especially good news to me. Could it mean that real wedding bells will soon ring for same-sex couples from the Delaware Water Gap to Cape May? And because so many people commute from New Jersey to New York and vice versa (Helen and I have done every permutation of this between the two of us), how will this impact marriage rights in New York? Or will all the IT consultants get rich tweaking HR systems to handle the mess?
If you live in New Jersey, please send a message to Gov. Corzine and the legislature, asking them to act as quickly as possible on the Commission’s recommendation.
Kudos to Steven Goldstein of Garden State Equality, and vice chair of the Commission, for all he has done to make this happen. He would, I am sure, rightly reply that it is a team effort—but there is no doubt he has been a true leader for all of New Jersey’s LGBT community.
*No, marriage equality will not force clergy to marry same-sex couples. I’d like to think many of them will choose to, however.