Tonight, tomorrow and all week long, wedding bells will ring across New Jersey – and in our hearts, we will know that love and joy are being celebrated by same-sex couples who now share equality and freedom.
Today, in one of the first major court challenges since the demise of Section 3 of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the New Jersey Superior Court granted Lambda Legal’s motion for summary judgment in its case seeking marriage equality on behalf of Garden State Equality, New Jersey’s statewide LGBT advocacy organization, and six same-sex couples who seek the freedom to marry.
The New York Times supports Lambda Legal's case for the freedom to marry in New Jersey and agrees that limiting same-sex couples to civil unions creates "obvious inequality."
Lambda Legal filed a brief today answering the arguments made last week by the State of New Jersey in our case seeking the freedom to marry for same-sex couples.
In New Jersey, where same-sex couples are in civil unions or may have been married in other states, but are barred from marriage at home, this is a game-changer.
Marriage is common social currency. It is a way of expressing the most central loving partnership. It is imbued with dignity and respect. It is easily understood. As children, my clients imagined being married. And now their children want to see their parents married.