Gay Marriage Campaign Purposely Ignores Fact that Civil

                               Unions Are Working!

                          Articles of Unequal Treatment "Unfounded"

Trenton – New Jersey Family First the legislative action arm of New Jersey Family Policy Council today exposed a pivotal fallacy in the argument of same-sex marriage proponents who advocate for redefining marriage largely on the basis that the existing civil union law in New Jersey is discriminatory.

According to Len Deo, President of the organization, while 4,170 same-sex couples have entered into civil unions since the Civil Union Act was passed by the New Jersey State Legislature in December 2006 and implemented in February 2007, only eight formal complaints have been filed with the New Jersey Division of Civil Rights.

Moreover, in testimony before the New Jersey Civil Union Review Commission, the body charged with reviewing the effectiveness of the Civil Union Act, various department heads from New Jersey agencies confirmed that civil unions were being successfully implemented in their respective departments.

“Those who are trying to redefine marriage argue that civil unions aren’t working and that they invite ‘unequal treatment of same-sex couples,’” stated Deo, “but the evidence says something completely different. With formal complaints being filed by only 8 couples – that’s less than 0.19% of all civil union couples – it’s obvious that the implementation of the Civil Union Act has, indeed, been effective in achieving the goals set out for it by the legislature.”

Furthermore, all of these eight complaints were filed within the first year following the implementation of the Civil Union Act, suggesting that any problems encountered were very likely due not to outright discrimination but to typical snags inherent in the implementation of any new law or policy.

“Claims of unequal treatment may provide useful rhetoric, but in truth, they are unfounded,” concluded Deo. “The fact that same-sex marriage advocates are relying so heavily on such baseless claims only goes to show the weakness of their overall argument for redefining marriage.”

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