Good news, but it’s too bad the blowhard governor of New Jersey is still promising to veto the bill:
The 42-33 vote Thursday sends the bill to Christie. The Republican governor who opposes gay marriage had promised “very swift action” if the bill reached his desk.
Christie and most Republican lawmakers want gay marriage put to a popular vote. Democrats say gay marriage is a civil right protected by the Constitution and should not be subject to referendum.
[...]
The affirmative vote in the Democrat-controlled Assembly ended speculation over whether the measure had the votes to pass.
The Senate passed the bill 24-16 vote Monday.
It needs a few more Republican votes in both houses to override a veto, so if you’re in New Jersey, call your lawmakers.
I wouldn’t be so harsh on Christie. Yes, I would disagree with his decision to veto marriage equality. But he’s said he is in favor of civil unions, which is pretty progressive for Republicans, and that’s despite his Catholicism. While it would still be wrong of him to veto this bill, he is a relatively good part of a party full of homophobes, and I would not trash him like this.
Christie may be in favor of civil unions, but he’s not big on civil rights. In his decision not to allow adult adoptees a copy of their original birth certificate, he continues to mandate discrimination towards a group of people chosen using criteria beyond their control and against the wishes of all those it would affect directly.
Why would he treat gays any better?
I mean, he doesn’t even have a gay sibling!
He can forget his delusional belief that he’ll be able to put it to a referendum. He’s going to need a two thirds majority to do that and few democrats will go along with it. If anything is political theater, it’s that. He’s appeasing the bigot base.
It’s naive to believe that just because he supports Civil Unions makes him a “good” part of the party of homophobia. George Bush supported them but was in total agreement with DOMA as were some democrats but the difference between the democrats then and now is that the majority of them have progressed to support marriage equality. Few in the GOP have. All of the yes votes yesterday in NJ came from democrats, not one republican voted yes some of whom supported Civil Unions.
Reuben, New Jersey has a Civil Unions law that has been found to be woefully inadequate in that it comes no where near providing people with all the same rights/benefits of marriage. Christie is not so much in favor of Civil Unions as he is saying he would just like to keep the status quo- keeping people in an unequal second-class status. He is protecting his future political aspirations, nothing more.
Moby Dickhead Christie still has his eyes on DC, so will do nothing to ruffle the wing nuts. We’ll get marriage equality in NJ soon, but probably not until Meatloaf is out of office. He touts balancing our state budget, but did it by laying off thousands of state workers. One I know has MS and is about to lose his house. Of course our municipal taxes went through the roof and the wealthy got *another* tax break. He’s just another heartless piece of s**t republican. Well, maybe he has a heart, but it’s about due for a quadruple bypass.
I think the voters of NJ should be allowed a referendum vote on the size of the a*s that’s allowed in the Governor’s chair.
I don’t believe that Christie’s real concern is the sanctity of marriage or any religious belief. His concern is that if he does the right thing (and I don’t think he is really against gay marriage personally) he will never be the GOP nominee for President–that’s what this is really about.
Christie is another Mitt Romney: wet finger up in the air to see which way the wind is blowing. And Reuben, since when does putting the civil rights of a disliked minority group up to a popular vote show any understanding of why we have a constitution? He deserves to be trashed.