NJ Senator Comes Around

Yesterday, polling data from New Jersey showed that the voting public supports “upgrading” civil unions to marriage. Some relevant data includes:

By 63% to 31%, New Jersey voters say they’d be fine with the state legislature upgrading civil
unions to marriage equality.

By 72% to 21%, New Jersey voters say state legislators would be in no electoral danger if they enacted marriage equality.

By 61% to 29%, New Jersey voters say they expect the state to enact marriage equality within just a couple of years.

Today, a Catholic state Senator who just a year ago spoke out against equal marriage came out with a column called, “Why Not Gay Marriage?” It’s pretty short but heartfelt:

I love my church, being raised a Roman Catholic. The Catholic Church does wonderful charitable works for the poor throughout the world, yet when I attended Mass recently, the priest gave a homily condemning those who do not follow the rules of the Church. Not a word about the gospel of the day, a beautiful reading from the gospel by Matthew on loving thy neighbor as thyself.

Civil unions in New Jersey give committed gay couples the same rights as heterosexual married couples. Except the right to get “married”. The very law that gives these loving couples the rights of marriage deprives them of the loving feeling of being married. Outcasts only because of their love for each other.