Last week’s unanimous ruling by the New Jersey Supreme Court that the Garden State cannot legally discriminate against same-sex couples is the strongest reason yet to vote for Referendum I on Colorado’s ballot.
Referendum I doesn’t allow “gay marriage,” but it does stop the discriminatory treatment that same-sex couples now receive from their own state government. Ending such discrimination is the best way to forestall litigation that might lead to a court order requiring same-sex marriage in Colorado or any other state.
The New Jersey decision can’t be demagogued as rank “activism” by a liberal judiciary. Four of the seven New Jersey justices were appointed by a Republican governor. Indeed, all three members of the minority who wanted to order the New Jersey legislature to give gays the right to marry were GOP appointees, led by Chief Justice Deborah Poritz. All three Democratic appointees joined Republican Justice Roberto Rivero-Soto in giving the legislature 180 days to find a way to end the discrimination against gays, perhaps by passing domestic partner legislation similar to Referendum I.
The unanimous message of the New Jersey court is that while reasonable people may differ on the means of ending the current discrimination against gay couples, that discrimination must end. The Post believes that civil unions that would be authorized by Referendum I are the right way to end that discrimination.
Referendum I was crafted by Colorado’s elected legislature after close study, much public comment and open debates. It ends the discrimination against same-sex couples while explicitly stipulating that marriage remains only “the legally recognized union of one man and one woman.”
Because it is not marriage, Referendum I won’t entitle same-sex couples to any of the more than 1,100 rights extended to married couples under federal law, such as Social Security survivors’ benefits or the right to file joint tax returns.
But Referendum I will end the bias now written into existing state law. For example, if a heterosexual worker is killed on the job, his or her spouse and any minor children are entitled to survivor’s benefits. But surviving partners of gay workers and children who depend on the earnings of a non-custodial partner killed on the job are not entitled to a single dime of the benefits that their taxes help provide to heterosexual families.
That just isn’t fair. And it can’t be corrected by any private action such as writing a will. This rank injustice can by reversed by litigation, as occurred in New Jersey, or we can do it the Colorado way, with voters endorsing a legislative remedy.
That’s Referendum I. It’s the right thing to do and the right way to do it.
safeguard the institution of marriage as we have long known and honored it.
