Vote on N.J. gay marriage bill postponed

Princeton students on both sides of the issue are closely following the debate over the bill.

Kelly Roache ’12, a member of Garden State Equality, a New Jersey group advocating for “marriage equality,” said she thinks the fate of the bill is still unclear.

“It’s difficult to say right now, because a lot of legislators have come over to our side … but the difficulty is that some cannot vote in favor because of their constituency,” Roache explained. “The key is to make sure that we get them to follow their conscience.”

“The bill would not have passed if the vote had gone down this week,” LGBT activist Emily Rutherford ’12 said. “[The delay] gives the bill’s supporters more time to put pressure on the state senators ... and will give Princeton the time to encourage Shirley Turner to vote ‘yes.’ ” Turner, a Democrat, represents New Jersey’s 15th Legislative District, which includes Princeton Borough, Princeton Township and the University.

Shivani Radhakrishnan ’11, the vice president of the Anscombe Society, is also unsure about whether the bill will pass. “I really don’t know … but given what happened in New York, there’s a good chance that [the bill] will not go through,” she said.

Radhakrishnan noted that Anscombe as an organization is not weighing in on the bill. She is also a member of the Editorial Board of The Daily Princetonian.

New Jersey has allowed civil unions for gay couples for almost three years, but some claim that the existing laws fail to give gay couples the same kinds of rights and protections as those granted through marriage.

Supporters of the bill argue that this “separate but equal” treatment of gay couples has failed. In testimony at the New Jersey State House last Monday, gay and lesbian couples asserted that they have been denied benefits like health insurance and access to their partners in hospitals.

Opinions on campus about gay marriage are also varied.

“From social science research, we see that the most stable framework for rearing children is a marriage between a man and a woman,” Radhakrishnan said. “The state should be interested in the type of marriage that promotes the healthy raising of children.”

Though Radhakrishnan acknowledged that there are some examples of LGBT households raising children effectively, she added that she thinks these are merely exceptions.

Rutherford voiced a different opinion. “I haven’t seen any credible research that supports anything like that … I think it is very general and misleading,” she said. “I personally know numbers of people who have been raised between two moms or two dads … or any sort of combination of individuals, who had a stable and happy childhood.”

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Opinions on campus about gay marriage sometimes defy party lines. Roache, who described herself as conservative, said she does not believe that marriage is a partisan issue, but rather “a basic human right.”

“Legally, [gay and lesbian couples] should have the same rights and the same legal name of marriage as any heterosexual couple,” she said. Roache said she hopes to be in Trenton for the debate now that the vote has been postponed. “I would certainly like to give testimony,” she noted.

Supporters of the bill are working against the clock. Corzine said that he would sign the bill if it comes to his desk, but Republican governor-elect Chris Christie, who comes into office on Jan. 19, pledged to veto it.

If Corzine signs the bill into law, then Christie and other opponents of gay marriage will have to wait until 2011 — when the next round of state elections will be held — to counter. And if the vote is delayed until after Jan. 19, prospects for the bill will be bleak as long as Christie is in office.