Lambda Legal: Making the Case for Marriage in New Jersey

Meet Keith and Tom

Tom and their children were kicked off Keith's health insurance because state auditors would not recognize their civil union.

Read notes of support to the couples

Hundreds of supporters from across the country have sent notes to the plaintiff couples in our New Jersey marriage lawsuit. Read the highlights, then send your own!

Meet Erica and Tevonda, fighting for marriage equality in NJ

Tell Marsha and Louise that you support their fight for marriage equality

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Learn About the Case

After nearly a decade fighting for marriage equality in New Jersey, Lambda Legal is back in court.

Why We Need Marriage Equality in New Jersey

By Kevin Cathcart
Lambda Legal Executive Director

A History of the Fight for Marriage Equality in New Jersey

By Hayley Gorenberg
Lambda Legal Deputy Legal Director

Newsfeed

07/24/11 Press Release
Lambda Legal and Garden State Equality Celebrate Marriage in New York by Calling for Equality in New Jersey

06/29/11 In the News — The Associated Press
7 NJ couples file suit demanding gay marriage

06/29/11 Press Release
Lambda Legal and Garden State Equality Team Up to Bring Marriage Equality to New Jersey: Lawsuit Filed Today

06/29/11 Teleconference
2011 Summer Round Up Teleconference

06/29/11 In the News — The Associated Press
Gay Couples to Sue NJ, Seeking Same-Sex Marriage

06/28/11 In the News — The New York Times
New Jersey’s Governor, Champion of Inequality

Meet the Couples

How Civil Unions Have Failed

Civil unions have to be explained and do not get the same respect as a marriage.
- Only the word married conveys the universally understood meaning applicable to the lifetime commitment many couples make. Regardless of whether civil union and marriage offer the same benefits and obligations on paper, when the government relegates same-sex couples to civil union rather than marriage, it forces them to explain the difference at work, at school, in hospitals and elsewhere. Those couples lose the respect and dignity that they deserve for their commitment to be responsible for each other.
Civil unions create more harm outside the state.
- Although the federal government and some states still disrespect same-sex married couples,problems are further compounded for a couple with a civil union. When a couple's own state creates a separate status other than marriage, it makes them even more vulnerable, both within their state and when they travel.
A separate and unequal status invites others to discriminate.
- When the government decides one group cannot have the same option as others, it marks them as inferior and invites others to discriminate against them as well, including employers, businesses, police, emergency room workers and others.
Civil unions break the promise of equality.
- Civil unions were created as a political compromise, because some people were not ready to provide same-sex couples with the same right to marry that different-sex couples have. The highest courts in four states—California, Connecticut, Iowa and Massachusetts—have said that maintaining a separate legal status like civil unions for a minority, rather than treating everyone the same, is a violation of the constitutional promises of equality.