Democrats and gay rights activists have been mounting a campaign to override Gov. Chris Christie’s veto of the Marriage Equality Act. Recently, two Republican members of the Assembly — Declan O’Scanlon and Holly Schepisi — have announced they will support the measure when it comes up for a vote again. ACLU-NJ Executive Director Udi Ofer told NJ Today Managing Editor Mike Schneider he believes New Jersey lawmakers will legalize same-sex marriage before Jan. 14, 2014.
Ofer said he wasn’t surprised that some Republicans have decided to support the legislation, but it’s still exciting. “Over the past several weeks, the ACLU of New Jersey, along with state and national partners, launched a new campaign called New Jersey United for Marriage. And what’s so exciting about the campaign is that it’s entirely bipartisan. And we are working on a daily basis with Republicans all across the state to build support for marriage equality,” he said. “Poll after poll has shown that more than 60 percent of New Jerseyans support marriage equality and what we’ve seen also in the past 24 hours is that more and more lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are coming on in support of marriage equality.”
To explain the recent increase in support from Republicans, Ofer said more and more New Jerseyans are beginning to support marriage equality, which he said will give all loving and committed couples the same rights. “It’s really a narrative of love, a narrative of family that is building that is persuading New Jerseyans across the state to support marriage equality,” he said. “The ACLU of New Jersey along with Garden State Equality and our other allies have been meeting with Republican lawmakers, have been meeting with individuals who are prominent both in the Republican Party here in the state and in the nation to build the national narrative of providing the same sort of rights that benefits all loving and committed relationships.”
Last time a vote was taken, Ofer said lawmakers were three votes shy of a super majority in the Senate and 12 shy in the Assembly. “We clearly have more votes than that. I’m not gonna speculate where we are, but we’re clearly in a good spot and we’re confident that more and more voices both in the Republican Party and in the business industry, in the faith community are gonna come out in support of marriage equality in the coming weeks,” he said.
Lawmakers have until Jan. 14, 2014 to vote on the issue and Ofer expects it to take place after the November election. “The vote will happen when the votes are there. So the moment that we have them,” he said.
Although there isn’t a date set for the vote and it’s less than four months from the deadline, Ofer believes same-sex marriage will become legal in the Garden State. “We’re confident that before Jan. 14 we will bring marriage equality to New Jersey,” he said.