http://www.njo.com/news/jjournal/ind...6722244221.xml
State Senate votes legal recognition for same-sex couples
Domestic partners bill sent to McGreevey
Friday, January 09, 203
By John P. McAlpin
Associated Press writer
TRENTON - Gay and lesbian advocates cheered, hugged and some openly wept as the state Senate voted yesterday to give them many of the same rights as legally married couples.
Without a word of opposition, the Senate voted 23-9 to approve a bill granting those rights. Gov. James E. McGreevey is likely to sign the measure into law shortly.
Gay and lesbian advocates campaigned to make New Jersey the fifth state to recognize domestic partners. Conservative and religious groups opposed the measure, saying it threatened traditional marriage values.
When the vote was tallied, many of the several hundred supporters who crammed into the Senate gallery cheered.
"I absolutely kissed the floor," said Lambda Legal campaign manager Steven Goldstein, who then boasted that he and his partner will quickly move to the state and register.
"It's the coming of age of the power of the gay and lesbian community in New Jersey," Goldstein said. "The debate was free of any rancor. There wasn't a single member of the state Senate speaking out against gay rights."
Under the legislation, domestic partners would get access to medical benefits, insurance and other legal rights. New Jersey would also recognize such partnerships granted in other states. The bill does not authorize gay marriage, which is against the law in New Jersey.
Among the three Democratic senators from Hudson County, Bernard Kenny and Nicholas Sacco voted to approve the bill and L. Harvey Smith did not vote.
To obtain domestic-partner status, a couple would have to share a residence and show proof of joint financial status or property ownership or designation of the partner as the beneficiary in a retirement plan or will. Details on registration have yet to be worked out.
The bill would not force businesses to offer health coverage to same-sex partners of employees but would require insurance companies to make it available. It would also allow a surviving partner to gain property rights and other survivors' benefits.
The measure also includes some benefits for domestic unions between unmarried heterosexual couples age 62 and over.
"These couples are our friends. These couples are our neighbors," said Sen. Barbara Buono, D-Middlesex. "They deserve our respect, our support and our vote on this bill today."
Sen. Raymond J. Lezniak, D-Union, said he loves his church, but rejected the stance Catholic leaders have taken on rights for same-sex couples.
"On secular matters, on legal matters on relationships between two people, it is not infallible," Lezniak said.
Gay and Lesbian organizations celebrated the vote, saying it would finally provide same sex couples with rights such as being able to get medical information about a partner who is hospitalized.
"It creates a legal relationship between same sex couples who until now were legal strangers," said Laura Popel, president New Jersey Lesbian and Gay Coalition.
Michael Blake of the Stonewall Democrats said the legislation will give same sex couple legal recognition that their relationships are valid.
Conservative groups were outraged by the vote and threatened to fight any law in court. John Tomicki, executive director of the League of American Families, said the bill discriminates against unmarried heterosexual couples who are domestic partners under age 62.
"Opposite gender people do not have these rights," Tomicki said.
"I am outraged that the state Senate would approve such a bill because of the number of problems with it in terms of discrimination in regards to both sex and age," said Bishop Austin L. Harrold of the Interdenominational Christian Community Church in Jersey City.
Harrold rejected the argument that heterosexual couples under 62 may simply get married if they seek similar benefits.
"Maybe they don't want to get married," he said, "because it's been a long tradition, especially in the black community, that people live together without getting married, which used to be called shacking together."
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