Gay equality: the new civil rights fight

This is very disappointing:

...(T)he New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services announced that 852 couples have gotten civil-unioned in New Jersey in the first ninety days of the civil unions law. During the same 90 days, Garden State Equality received 102 complaints of a civil union not being recognized by an employer or insurer in New Jersey. Today, in fact, Garden State Equality received its 103rd complaint. The failure rate is nearly 1 in 8, or 12 percent.

Asked Steven Goldstein, chair of Garden State Equality: "What society would ever tolerate a law that fails 12 percent of the time? If New Jersey's civil unions law were a person, it would be arrested for committing fraud."

I hope the state public advocate, Ronald Chen, wastes no time in suing the employers and insurance companies for those 88 percent. I would imagine there are more than a few common offenders among them.

Civil unions not = marriage

Steven Goldstein, chairman of Garden State Equality, posted over at Bluejersey.com that state statistics released today show insurance companies are widely failing to honor New Jersey's same-sex civil unions the same as they do for people under marriage contracts, traditional or same-sex.

In the first month of the civil union law, 20 cases have come our way where employers, hospitals and other institutions have actually told couples, "We don't care that you are civil-unioned -- we will only give you and your partner benefits if you're married."

Make no mistake: This is happening even though it violates the Lewis v. Harris decision and the New Jersey civil unions statute that emerged from it. In fact, two insurance companies have stated they are providing benefits to married same-sex couples in Massachusetts, but not to civil-union couples in New Jersey. Garden State Equality will have more on this in the days ahead.

If you're a same-sex couple whose New Jersey civil union is not being recognized, please call Steven Goldstein, on cell (917) 449-8918, or call our Garden State Equality office at (973) GSE-LGBT.