Do yous like Jeerzy? Well, hopefully you're not a lesbian looking to buy a wedding dress.
Daily News coloumnist Ronnie Polaneczky writes an apologetic human interest story about a young bride-to-be who was denied service by a bridal store because she is a lesbian. "Apologetic?" you ask? Well, yes; thoughtful and kind-hearted straight person Polaneczky, aftering learning all the facts about what happened to Alix Genter (the bride-to-be) and then speaking to Donna (the bridal store owner/service-denier), ultimately finds that he is really, really sorry Genter has to put up with this kind of crap. "...stories [like this one]... make me want to say 'I'm sorry' to gay people for the nonsense they endure from some heterosexuals who give the rest of us straight people a bad name."
Polaneczky is a reasonable person who logically interprets facts about LGBT people, so there's no real reason for me to address his positions. The bridal store owner Donna, however... well, let's just say that I suspect she lives at 1234 Under a Boulder Boulevard, if you know what I mean. I think now would be a great time to educate Donna about how her opinions about LGBT people are a tad off-base.
Donna said a lot of tragically-underinformed, hurtful things about LGBT people in her interview with Polaneczky, including that Genter is a lesbian only because men let her down and thus she relegated herself to women, that LGBT people love to "stir up drama," and that they are crazy aggressors who... plundge knives into restaurant chairs? Yeah, I don't get it, either. However, none of these sentiments were as out-of-touch with reality than her comments about the recognition of same-sex marriage in her state of New Jersey.
The most interesting part of the whole story is why Donna refused to serve Genter. When Donna called Genter to refuse the latter's business, Donna explained that she refused service because 'what Genter was planning' (i.e., her wedding) was "illegal," and that Donna does "not participate in illegal activities." Well, isn't that upstanding of you, Donna? Except for the fact that civil unions have been legal in your state of New Jersey since 19 February 2007, when the Civil Union Act went into effect.
Prior to the passing of that bill by the New Jersey Legislature, there was a five-year-long, highly-publicized New Jersey Supreme Court case called Lewis v. Harris that questioned New Jersey's legal authority to deny the protections and responsibilities of marriage to same-sex couples. Lambda Legal filed Lewis v. Harris in June 2002 on behalf of seven same-sex couples seeking to wed in New Jersey: Mark Lewis and Dennis Winslow, Cindy Meneghin and Maureen Kilian, Craig Hutchison and Chris Lodewyks, Diane Marini and the late Marilyn Maneely, Marcye and Karen Nicholson-McFadden, Saundra Toby-Heath and Alicia Heath-Toby, and Sarah and Suyin Lael. When the case reached the state's Supreme Court, the Justices found unanimously that denying same-sex couples the same legal rights and benefits opposite-sex couples enjoy through marriage violated the state's Constitution. However - and this is the really interesting part - even though the Court found that it is illegal to deny marriage benefits to same-sex couples, the Court didn't actually grant marriage equality. Instead, the Justiced demanded that the Legislature pass legislation making opposite and same-sex couples legally-equal within 180 days. The Legislature did so, and thus the Civil Unions Act was passed and signed into law by then-Governor Jon Corzine. So, Donna, your choice to deny Genter on the basis that her actions are illegal, then, was a legally-unfounded claim, and the long history of that fact should have been apparent to you as a resident of New Jersey. The fact that you live at 1234 Under a Boulder Boulevard notwithstanding, of course.
As further proof that Donna's residence at 1234 Under a Boulder Boulevard is somehow the most remote location in the state with the higest population density in the Union with 1,196 inhabitants per square mile, Donna seems to be totally clueless about the legal recognition of same-sex relationships in her state despite the fact that New Jersey is one of the two most-heated hotspots for marriage equality at present! (The other one is California with it's ongoing legal battles over Perry v. Schwarzenegger.) Before the passage of the New Jersey Civil Unions Act, Lambda Legal had already reviewed the bill's content, and found that it would not actually provide all of the same rights as marriage and established their "Civil Unions Watch" in response. The New Jersey Bar Association came to the same conclusion shortly thereafter. Oh, and New Jerseyans noticed, too: by July 2007 - less than six months after the bill's ratification - 211 of the 1,358 couples unionized under the law reported to Garden State Equality that they had been denied full legal equality under civil unions.
Fortunately for these couples, the Civil Unions Act had already formed a group of legislators tasked with monitaring civil unions, the Civil Unions Review Commission. Since their first meeting on 18 June 2007, the Commission collected complaints from same-sex couples about the state's civil unions and, in December 2008, they released their finding that civil unions don't actually provide full legal equality to same-sex couples mandated by Lewis v. Harris; likewise, the Commission recommended that the New Jersey Legislature change the language of existing marriage laws to be gender-neutral so as to include same-sex couples.
In December 2009 - a full year after the Commission's recommendations - the New Jersey Senate Judiciary Committee voted to approve marriage equality in a 7 to 6 vote. The Senate at large, however, defeated the measure 20 to 14, and thus marriage equality was not brought to New Jersey.
But there are no excuses for you to be so unaware of this news, Donna, for the story continues! In January 2010, Republican Chris Christie assume the position of Governor by defeating incumbent governor Corzine; whereas Corzine had said he would sign marriage equality into law should a bill come to his desk, current Governor Christie supports a constitutional amendment barring same-sex couples for marriage. (For those of you who are really following, yes, the current Governor of New Jersey supports legislation that would withhold legal equality to same-sex couples despite the fact that the state's Supreme Court already ruled that doing so violates the state's constitution and the Civil Union Review Commission declared that they couldn't hold out on equality much longer. Some might say that Christie is aloof or a little... out of his mind; but I disagree, for Christie is clearly not tremendously fond of the rules or your stupid opinions, so this kind of feeble thinking is par for the course for him.) Christie's position on marriage equality means that it's highly unlikely the recommendations of the Civil Union Review Commission will become law through the legislative process.
Likewise, in March 2010, Lambda Legal filed a motion reactivating the case for marriage equality on behalf of the plaintiffs in the original Lewis v. Harris lawsuit, meaning that the state of New Jersey, which is in a pretty serious budget crisis and Christie subsequently underfunded public schools through budget cuts before said cuts were found to be illegal by a district judge, must pay again to rehash an issue that was already decided upon several years ago by the Supreme Court of that state! There is a silver lining for gay and bisexual New Jerseyans, however: this time, the Supreme Court will have to recognize the equalness of your relationships, as they tasked the legislative branch to enact that truth and the Legislature failed to do so, so the Court will have to pick up the slack. Equality will come to you soon, at least at the state level.
With all of this money and all these weddings at stake, you'd think that Donna, who makes her living by selling wedding attire, would be a little more cognisant of the suffering of gays and bisexuals in your state. Now, Donna, listen up, cuz this is very important to your livelihood: according to a 2006 study by The Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy, if marriage equality was to become law in New Jersey, "sales by... wedding and tourism-related business would rise by $102.5 million in each of the three years" following the legalization of same-sex marriage. Additionally, New Jersey's gross tax revenue would "rise by $7.2 million per year," and some 1,400 jobs would be created in your state. Yes, that's $307.5 million pumped into your business in the next three years. You'd have to be crazy to turn down that kind of money, Donna. Then again, it's clearly very remote out there at 1234 Under a Boulder Boulevard and, to use your own words, "You know how they get."
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