You are needed in Trenton on Monday

by: Lurleen

Sat Nov 21, 2009 at 21:28:14 PM EST

Urgent!  This Monday, November 23rd, join us at 8:30 am in Trenton to lobby for marriage equality!   Meet at Garden State Equality's office across from the State House at 110 West State Street, Trenton. ...

Our brand new Garden State Equality gear is ready.  On Monday, we will distribute free t-shirts, buttons, stickers and signs as supplies last. ...

The legislature is back in session on Monday. We have just learned that our anti-marriage equality opponents are doing a lobby day on Monday and are turning out in droves to try to intimidate legislators. If ever there was a time to take off from work to make history, this is it.

Earlier this week, New Jersey's Senate Majority Leader Steve Sweeney told the press that civil rights for New Jersey couples should wait. And we say to him, if not now, then when?

If New Jersey doesn't pass marriage legislation now, any possibility in the near future is as good as gone. We have just a few weeks until Governor Corzine, who supports the right for gay and lesbian couples to marry, officially hands over the reins to Governor-elect Chris Christie, who vocally does not.

We have a state whose majority supports equal rights for gay couples, we have a legislature whose majority supports equal rights for gay couples and we have a governor - for now - who also supports equal rights for gay couples.

But we don't have a leader in the state senate brave enough to say, "That's enough. New Jersey is going to do the right thing."

Instead of taking up the responsibility to do what they know is right, they're taking cover behind the economy. We have four years ahead of us to fix New Jersey's withering finances. We have less than two months to make sure that people aren't forced to live with the indignity of discrimination brought on by civil unions, affecting every corner of their lives, every day of their lives.

...We've come too far to retreat. The "economy" excuse is a red herring, a false dichotomy, an easy way out, and just plainly and simply wrong. Marriage would bring money into New Jersey, and it would solve the financial straits of gay couples who struggle because their civil unions deprive them of health benefits....

It's up to New Jersey legislators, who know that marriage equality is the right thing, to secure the civil rights of our state's gay and lesbian families. But it's up to us, the rest of New Jersey, to pressure our state's legislators into not having a choice.

If you live in New Jersey, there are ways you can take immediate action. We need you to e-mail your state senator, call the senate majority leader at 856-251-9801 -- urge him to take up marriage legislation -- and rally with the ACLU-NJ in Trenton Monday, November 23.

If there's a day to take off work for a cause, it's Monday. Your day off could mean a lifetime of equality for families in New Jersey.

Parking is available at the Trenton Marriott Parking Lot at 1 West Lafayette Street, at the corner of West Lafayette Street and South Warren Street. If needed, Garden State Equality will reimburse you for the parking. Don't go looking for free street parking in Trenton: It's impossible to find and/or you'll have to feed a meter constantly.

For a map to walk to the Trenton Marriott parking lot at 1 West Lafayette Street to Garden State Equality's office at 110 West State Street, enter the locations at www.Mapquest.com/directions.

Again, please join us this Monday, November 23rd at 8:30 am at Garden State Equality's Trenton office, 110 West State Street. On site, we'll have free donuts and juice to get the day started. At lunch time, free pizza and soda.

Questions? Please contact Garden State Equality's field director Hannah Johnson at Johnson@GardenStateEquality.org or mobile (920) 222-1878.