By Senior Correspondent Desirée Taylor
NJ Today
For nearly 40 years, Maureen Kilian and Cindy Meneghin have had a loving relationship and raised their kids together. But what they don’t have but want is a marriage certificate.
“We knew what it would mean to our family. We knew it would bring us legal protections that our family desperately needs. Every family needs as well as an acknowledgment, a true acknowledgment of the commitment that Maureen and I had made to each other over 39 years ago,” Meneghin said.
Hoping to gain those rights in court, the women joined a lawsuit filed against the state. It basically argues that New Jersey’s civil union law does not fulfill a 2006 state Supreme Court mandate where justices ruled gay couples should get the same legal protections as married heterosexual couples.
“There are over 1,000 provisions, rights, benefits that are denied to same-sex couples here in New Jersey,” said Garden State Equality Executive Director Troy Stevenson.
“We worry. We worry all the time when something happens, if we’re going to have the protections that a marriage license would have given us,” Kilian said.
But New Jersey’s attorney general same-sex couples can obtain federal protections if the state doesn’t legally recognize their married status. If that doesn’t work, the attorney general argues that same-sex couples should sue the federal government. Stevenson doesn’t buy that argument.
“I would say that the federal government should not be in the business of creating a separate status, a separate but supposedly equal status, which is untrue. Separate but equal is never equal and it’s always separate,” Stevenson said.
Maureen and Cindy’s case before the Superior Court in Trenton dates back two years. But the fight for same-sex marriage began long before that. And a lot has changed in recent years. The state legislature approved gay marriage, however the governor vetoed it. And earlier this summer, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down key parts of DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act, which barred federal recognition of same-sex marriage.
Same-sex marriage is legal in 13 states. Gay couples are holding out hope New Jersey will be the next state to legalize it.
“We first were domestic partners. Then we became civil union partners. And now to finally get to the ultimate and say we’re married like any heterosexual couple would be absolutely fantastic to validate our relationship of 44 years,” said Morris Township resident Ed Mather.
The next battle for same-sex marriage will likely be in the Statehouse. Gay rights advocates are holding out hope that Democratic lawmakers can get enough support in the legislature to override the governor’s veto.