NJ Senate Passes Domestic Partnership Act

January 8, 2004

The New Jersey Senate voted 23-9 Thursday to approve a bill extending many of the state benefits of marriage to gay and lesbian couples.

Under the legislation, same-sex couples would be granted the right to collect the public pensions of deceased partners, guaranteed hospital visitation during illnesses, and qualify to receive health benefits in a partner's name.

It would not, however, make gay couples eligible for any of the federal benefits of marriage, nor would it give partners the same property rights as married spouses or many child custody rights and obligations heterosexual couples have.

The legislation passed the House last month and Gov. James E. McGreevey has announced he will sign it. It makes New Jersey the fifth state to recognize domestic partners.

It's a matter of basic fairness. And it's a matter of basic dignity for loved ones to be able to be in a hospital or be part of medical decisions, said Micah Rasmussen, a McGreevey spokesperson. To deny them any of those rights is an injustice.

LGBT groups said they are generally pleased with the legislation but that it does not go far enough.

Anytime a law is passed in any state it provides important rights and responsibility to gay and lesbian families. Important work is being done, said Sheryl Jacques, executive director of the Human Rights Campaign. Jacques called the bill one step on the road to full marriage rights.

The Roman Catholic Church mounted an 11th hour campaign to oppose the bill.

The prime movers behind this legislation are homosexual persons who seek legal affirmation that their cohabitation is equal in every way to marriage, the Catholic Conference of New Jersey said in a statement released Wednesday.

The wholesale acceptance of domestic partnerships discounts the fact that throughout history marriage—the union of one man and one woman—has offered societal stability by forming the physical, economic and cultural base for the orderly procreation, nurture and education of the next generation.

Even with the new domestic partner rights, a lawsuit challenging the state's refusal to grant marriage licenses to same-couples is working its way to the state Supreme Court.In November a superior court judge dismissed the suit saying there was nothing in the New Jersey constitution requiring the recognition of gay marriage.