With a vote of 42-33, lawmakers in New Jersey’s Assembly passed a bill to legalize same-sex marriage Thursday. The Senate had approved the bill earlier in the week; the legislation now moves to Republican Governor Chris Christie’s desk. He has promised a “swift” veto despite the growing number of Americans in support of marriage equality.
New Jersey instituted civil unions for gay and lesbian couples in 2006. Gay rights advocates argued that such unions represented a separate and unequal status for same-sex couples and pushed to have same-sex marriage legalized, but a marriage bill failed to pass a Senate vote in 2010.
Evan Wolfson, president of Freedom to Marry, thanked his colleagues at Garden State Equality and in the legislature for the historic victory. “Today’s win in New Jersey is a joyous advance for committed gay and lesbian couples in the Garden State, for their families, and for the entire community. In 2006, the New Jersey Supreme Court unanimously held that the constitution’s command of equality meant that the protections and responsibilities of marriage could no longer be denied to gay couples. After experimenting with a separate civil union mechanism, today the Legislature took note that marriage matters, and equal means equal, and voted in favor of the freedom to marry,” he said in a statement.
If Christie vetoes the legislation as promised, advocates and legislative leaders will have until January 2014 to make the case to override the veto. A Rutgers-Eagleton poll released on Tuesday shows that 54 percent of New Jersey voters support the freedom to marry.
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