Just another false alarm...

The New Jersey supreme court today ruled that the state legislature must introduce a bill giving gay couples equal rights with straight couples. This is great news.

However, they have not specified whether these rights should take the form of marriage or civil partnerships. Less good. Now three of the legislators - Assembly Speaker Pro Tem Wilfredo Caraballo, Assemblyman Brian Stack and Assemblyman Reed Gusciora - are putting forward a bill for full marriage equality. So we'll see what happens.

Here's this from a Garden State Equality communique:

"As the late Lt. Laurel Hester and too many other cases across New Jersey have shown, half-steps short of marriage -- like New Jersey's domestic-partnership law and also civil union laws -- don't work in the real world. Hospitals and other employers have told domestic-partnered couples across New Jersey: We don't care what the domestic partnership law says. You're not married.

That's why it wouldn't matter if the legislature added all the rights in the world to the current law without calling it marriage. Marriage is the only currency of commitment the real world universally understands and accepts."

So Garden State Equality will be running a commercial for the proposal, a rally of same-sex couples will be held tonight in Montclair, and many other events will be happening state-wide as the legislation gets discussed.

A poll has revealed that New-Jerseyans favour full marriage equality by 59-39 percent.