In the Heat of Summer, Marriage Remains Under Fire
Posted July 13, 2007

The “lazy days of summer” may be upon us, but make no mistake about it, opponents of the time-honored institution of traditional marriage are not resting on their laurels. This past week witnessed a flurry of activity within the pro-gay marriage camp in response to United Parcel Service’s (UPS) denial of healthcare coverage to a Toms River same-sex couple.

Because the company affords medical benefits to married same-sex couples in Massachusetts, couples here in the Garden State who entered into civil unions under New Jersey’s recent law assumed they would also be granted coverage.

Not so.

In a letter to the Toms River couple, UPS indicated that its company benefits extended only to “a spouse as defined under applicable state law.” The letter also stated that because New Jersey’s law “did not go as far as Massachusetts and afford same-sex couples the ability to marry,” UPS’s benefits program would not be extended to the civil union partner.

In a nutshell, UPS stated that “New Jersey law does not treat civil unions the same as marriages.”

In response, same-sex “marriage” activists have lashed out against New Jersey’s law, calling again for new legislation to redefine marriage in the Garden State. David Buckel, a lawyer with Lambda Legal, accused the legislature of saying, in essence, “You folks aren’t worthy of marriage.” Buckel stated, “If the New Jersey Legislature would just take back the invitation to discriminate, UPS would do the right thing.”

Continuing this strain of argument, Garden State Equality Chairman Steven Goldstein pointed to the legislature as the source of this “problem” for same-sex couples. “Civil unions are never in our lifetime going to be respected by employers like marriage,” Goldstein said.

And lest we think the legislature considers the issue laid to rest, Democratic Assemblyman Wilfredo Caraballo (Essex), the author of the civil union bill, expressed shock at UPS’s announcement: “We made it clear through the language and the intent that when it came to issues like this, we fully expected civil-unioned couples would be covered.” (A note: Caraballo recently lost his primary election bid. Presumably, his outspoken support for same-sex marriage did not help his re-election bid.)

This all leads to the question of “what next?” We would be blind to believe that the battle has waned even a bit and that marriage in the Garden State is safer in the lazy days of summer than in the middle of the fray of legislative session. Steven Goldstein claims he has already “heard from many legislators that this is something they want to deal with in 2008.”

An editorial this week in the ever-liberal Newark Star Ledger called on New Jersey lawmakers to “correct their mistake.”

If advocates of the homosexual agenda have their way, this issue will be the first on the table when the state legislature reconvenes.

So as families spend time vacationing together or relaxing along the Jersey shore this summer, the battle for the foundational building block of our civil society continues to rage.

The NJFPC spoke out after Governor Corzine signed the Civil Union bill into law last year, and we warned that the next step could very well be a complete redefinition of marriage in New Jersey. Let our vigilance never be surpassed by the endeavors of those who would subvert the foundation of society in an attempt to justify their own agendas.

Finally, to the issue of demands by advocates of special rights for homosexuals to redefine marriage, we say that words having meaning for us as well.  That is why you cannot redefine marriage because eliminating an entire gender from the picture and then calling it “marriage” is not a mere expansion of an institution, but rather the destruction of a core principle of our society!

Archive