Source: Associated Press via Philly.com
TRENTON, N.J. - Gay activists want same-sex marriage rights in New Jersey by year's end.

Steven Goldstein, chairman of gay rights group Garden State Equality, said Tuesday a state report that found civil unions create a second-class status for gay couples boosts their claims that the unions don't work.

It found gay couples in Massachusetts , the only state that allows gay marriage , don't experience the legal complications that those in New Jersey do.

"New Jersey's civil union law segregates, discriminates and humiliates the very people it is supposed to help," Goldstein said.

Goldstein said the group, which plans to run radio ads supporting gay marriage rights, has received 568 complaints from couples that their employers or others aren't respecting their civil unions.

About 2,300 couples have received civil unions in New Jersey.

"There should one classic standard for all loving couples , marriage," Goldstein said.

In a column published yesterday by NJ.com, Goldstein argued that the civil unions law in New Jersey has made life more difficult for some gay couples. "Today is the one-year anniversary of New Jersey's civil union law," Goldstein wrote. "For same-sex couples for whom today might have been a cause for celebration, this has been a year of survival through legal and personal hell. The law has wreaked havoc on same-sex couples' lives because too many employers, hospitals and others throughout the state do not recognize civil unions as marriage."

The report's findings were officially released Tuesday but were first reported Saturday by The Associated Press.

The law took effect a year ago and was meant to give same-sex couples marriage equality without the title.

As a part of that law, the commission was created to look into whether it was working.

The commission found that many companies in the state that are self-insured , and thus regulated by federal rather than state law , refuse to provide health insurance to the partners of their employees.

"Civil union status is not clear to the general public, which creates a second-class status," the report found.

Gov. Jon S. Corzine has said he would sign a gay marriage bill, but doesn't want the issue considered before November's presidential election.

His office didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

In his op-ed column, Goldstein urged the legislature to act quickly on marriage equality. "[T]o same-sex couples across New Jersey, the failure of the civil union law isn't a political issue. It's personal," Goldstein wrote. "Same-sex families across New Jersey are suffering emotional and financial pain - sometimes devastating pain - because marriage is the only currency of commitment the real world consistently accepts."

Corzine and New Jersey legislators made the state the third to offer civil unions under a 2006 law that came after the state Supreme Court ruled gay couples should receive the same legal protections as married couples.

Gay marriage opponents said they were surprised neither by the report nor calls for gay marriage.

"In the end, the truth is, the homosexual lobby wants same sex marriage for one reason , to use the power of the state to force heterosexuals to approve of homosexual activity and relationships," said Assemblyman Richard Merkt, R-Morris.

"They insist on using the state to jam their lifestyle down the throat of those who disagree with them," Merkt said. "Theirs is a divisive and ill-advised campaign that may well trigger a backlash from folks who are tired of the lobby's constant demands that law of marriage be changed for its sole benefit."

Full article: Gay activists call for full marriage rights in New Jersey | AP | 02/19/2008