NJ commission says state should allow gay marriage

NJ commission says state should allow gay marriage - Yahoo! News document.body.className = ‘js-enabled‘; Skip to navigation » Skip to content » U.S. U.S. Video NJ commission says state should allow gay marriage Buzz Up IM del.icio.us Yahoo! Bookmarks By GEOFF MULVIHILL, Associated Press Writer Geoff Mulvihill, Associated Press Writer – Tue Dec 9, 10:03 pm ET AFP/File – A man displays a placard during a demonstration in Los Angeles last month to condemn a ban on same-sex … Slideshow: Same-Sex Marriage Issues Pl Video: UN rights declaration turns 60 Pl Video: Woman learns to use new limbs

In its final report, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, the state‘s Civil Union Review Commission concluded that the state‘s two-year-old civil union law doesn‘t do enough to give gay couples the same protections as heterosexual married couples.

The commission found that the rights afforded to those in civil unions were not always well understood, and that allowing gay couples to marry would alleviate the problem. For example, there have been instances when people in civil unions have been prevented from visiting their partners in hospitals and making medical decisions on their behalf, the commission found.

Robert Corrales, a spokesman for Gov. Jon S. Corzine, said the governor would not comment on the report until it was presented. But in the past, Corzine has said that he would sign a bill allowing gay marriage.

Gay marriage opponents criticized the report, saying the commission was made up of members who favored gay marriage and calling its recommendations predetermined.

Steven Goldstein, the commission‘s vice chairman and the chairman of Garden State Equality, New Jersey‘s leading gay rights group, said that while there are some activists like him on the commission, it was a diverse group.

Benson, who confirmed that she is Republican and opposes abortion, said Tuesday that her views about gays have evolved over the past 15 years or so as she has met more gay people. She said the point of the commission was not to wrestle with whether the state Supreme Court was right to allow civil unions in 2006, but whether the unions delivered on their intent.

Of the 150 people who testified or wrote letters to the commission, only 10 opposed allowing gay couples to marry. Some opposed gay marriage on religious grounds and some — including Brannigan — argued that civil unions were working well.

Meanwhile, the Iowa Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday from prosecutors and attorneys for six gay couples and three of their children over a district court‘s decision to overturn that state‘s gay-marriage ban last year. Only one gay couple managed to marry before the judge who issued the ruling stayed his decision.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs argued their clients should have the same right to marry that heterosexual couples have.

It could take a year or more before a ruling is issued, attorneys involved in the case said.

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Associated Press writers David Porter in Newark and Amy Lorentzen in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report. Recommend Buzz Up IM del.icio.us Yahoo! Bookmarks (function() { /** * YUI function to get all elements by class name * getElementsByClass */ function getElementsByClass(className, tag, root) { tag = tag || ‘*‘; root = (typeof root == ‘string‘) ? document.getElementById(root) : root || document; var nodes = [], elements = root.getElementsByTagName(tag), re = new RegExp(‘(?:^|s+)‘ + className + ‘(?:s+|$)‘); for (var i = 0, len = elements.length; i < len; ++i) { if ( re.test(elements[i].className) ) { nodes[nodes.length] = elements[i]; } } return nodes; } /** * This code displays the expand button as the page loads. This prevents any lag in displaying * the button if the page takes a long time to load. If the user clicks the button before the page * loads then we just show the full story without animation. 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