Ugh:
Gov. Chris Christie has followed through on his promise to reject a bill allowing same-sex marriage in New Jersey by quickly vetoing the measure Friday.
The veto came a day after the state Assembly passed the bill. The state Senate had passed it on Monday. Christie, a Republican who opposes same-sex marriage, had vowed “very swift action” once the bill reached his desk.
In returning the bill to the Legislature, Christie reaffirmed his view that voters should decide whether to change the definition of marriage in New Jersey. His veto also proposed creating an ombudsman to oversee compliance with the state’s civil union law, which same-sex couples have said is flawed.
It IS flawed. Andy has a statement from Garden State Equality, released today, which says everything that needs to be said:
Frankly, I don’t think Chris Christie has an anti-gay bone in his body, however much I cannot say the same about his impending veto. His veto will be a brutally anti-gay act, pure and simple.
The Governor keeps calling for a referendum, which everyone knows will never happen in New Jersey. To borrow the Governor’s words, it’s time for him to stop engaging in political theater. Our lives are not La Cage Aux Folles: LGBT people fall in love, raise families, often children whom the rest of society shuns, and pay taxes in what is still one of the most heavily taxed states in the country.
Our Governor knows our contributions to society. He won’t veto the bill because he’s anti-gay. He’ll veto the bill because the 2016 South Carolina Republican Presidential primary electorate is anti-gay. And if I get flooded with letters now from Charleston, so be it.
And that’s what hurts so badly. I like this Governor and am able to see him beyond the headlines. When you are rejected by someone you want so badly to love you unconditionally – my own parents have taught me what that’s like – the pain is searing. Rick Santorum I can live with. Gerry Cardinale I can live with, too. But Chris Christie’s rejection? That hurts.
Governor, rest assured that even though I came of political age in an era where political adversaries could be friends – and if you’re game, we’ll continue that good relationship – Garden State Equality and I will continue to fight you on marriage equality with every bone in our bodies. You would expect no less.
For us, this is not about politics. This is about our fundamental American right to conduct our lives with a full life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Equality.
And until we achieve it, we will fight with our every last breath. And we will win, so help me God.
Yes, we will win.
We knew this was coming. He announced he would do it. Now is the time for true activism. Name-calling and blame-laying will do no good. Write to your representatives. Demonstrate. Show your pride and continue to change people’s minds. Progress is slow and often painful. Don’t make it worse by behaving badly.
Dick Cheney lobbied for same sex marriage in MD. Maybe he can lobby for an override of the veto in NJ.
“Frankly, I don’t think Chris Christie has an anti-gay bone in his body, however much I cannot say the same about his impending veto. His veto will be a brutally anti-gay act, pure and simple.”
Being willing to throw gay people under the bus in the name of his own imagined future political prospects is anti-gay, whether Garden State Equality wants to admit it or not.
Which planet is Garden State Equality living on? Kow-towing and pandering to religious bigots and usurping the power of the legislature to call for mob rule IS anti-gay. He wouldn’t call for a referendum on anything else. This proves how bigoted he is. If New Jerseyans called for a referendum on campaign finance reform or demanding the 1% and corporations pay their fair share of taxes, he’d give them the finger. Proof enough he’s a bigot and anti-gay.
If he had called for a referendum on jews or african americans or mormons or anybody else, he would be seen by everybody to be a bigot. Why does bigotry toward toward LGBT people get a pass?
“Frankly, I don’t think Chris Christie has an anti-gay bone in his body…. “. What b******t,Andy.
He’s in for a rude awakening if he thinks he can get two thirds of the senate and assembly to support a referendum, harder than an override of his veto I think. He’s playing politics believing this won’t alienate younger voters and younger women since he’s supporting Romney who supports a ban on abortion and of course the contraception debacle. He’s just destroyed any presidential aspiration for himself by vetoing the bill. He would have been smarter to have signed it although declaring he doesn’t support it personally. Moderates and independents would flock to his side and I daresay some gay voters who don’t usually vote republican.
This is all about Christie’s hopes to become President. He knows the conservative GOP base will never nominate someone who signed a bill legalizing gay marriage. He knows he’s doing the wrong thing but he’s willing to do that for the sake of his career.
So he f***s over thousands upon thousands of his fellow New Jersians (?) because he may, possibly, maybe will be wanting to run for president in 2016?
What a prick.
It will backfire. By the time the next presidential contest rolls around or the one after that, this action will come back to bite him in the a*s. While it may play well in the 2012 GOP primary, he looks like a bigoted opportunist to the rest of America.
A python with ‘unhinged’ jaws couldn’t bite that a*s.