TRENTON – Assemblyman Peter Barnes, (D-18), Edison, laid out the ground rules this morning as his Assembly Judiciary Committee took up the matter of A1, the Marriage Equality and Religious Exemption Act.
Over 120 people signed up to speak, Barnes said, and all of those people will have an opportunity to speak.
“Every person who is here who desires to speak will be permitted to speak,” Barnes said, even if it means staying into the evening. “Nobody will be turned away.”
But, he said, that means time limits. “It’s essential that everybody keeps their remarks to no longer than 3 minutes,” he said.
Speaker Sheila Oliver, (D-34), East Orange, was first to address the panel. One of the sponsors of the bill, she said under the state’s civil union law, same-sex couples are viewed as “not equal in the eyes of the law.”
“This is the same message that Jim Crow racial segregation laws represented in this country,” Oliver said. “The Civil Union Act has encouraged unequal treatment of same-sex couples and their children.”
Oliver acknowledged the difficult decision some lawmakers are facing on A1 – religious and philosophical wrangling – but said throughout history civilizations “adapted and adopted and held different points of view” than they did in the past.
“We need to stand up for every family; we need to stand up for equality,” she said. “There can be no other way.” She said, personal views aside, lawmakers are charged with “protecting and ensuring that there is equal protection under the law…what we all learned about in civics class: unalienable rights.”
