Victory for equality, no matter how you slice it
Yesterday’s ruling in New Jersey, and the subsequent strategizing on both sides, raises my concern for victory in Wisconsin against the marriage ban in November. On one hand, it’s a victory for equality. On the other hand… it’s still a victory for equality, just less so.
The New Jersey court did exactly what the conservatives insist courts don’t do. They deflected the issue out of their realm back to the hands of the lawmakers. While they established the position that gay and lesbian couples have the right to all of the privileges of marriage, they stopped short of legalizing same-sex marriage. That’s a big catch: the legislature now has the responsibility to frame what the institution will look like.
New Jersey already affords “domestic partnerships,” which offer only a fraction of the protections, rights and responsibilities of civil marriage. One option would be to expand those domestic partnerships, still creating a different term for the same thing. Another option, of course, is to fully extend the term marriage. Yet another option — a remote one — would be to disband civil marriage altogether, call the whole institution something else, or do something that fully equalizes the status across societal boundaries and removes the inherent connection of church and state.
But what does this mean for states, like Wisconsin, that have ballot measures this fall? We can only wait and see, but I’m not expecting much sleep between now and Nov. 7.
October 26th, 2006 at 9:27 pm
I thought it was going to be on this. Did you see what Harold Ford had to say about the ruling? Stupid! I have no clue why he opened his mouth… it only serves as coder for the voters in Tennessee.