Gay Marriage Would be Financial Windfall in N.J.

In The New England Blade, Zachary Violette writes;

The Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law released a new research study last week analyzing the economic gains that same-sex couples’ weddings would bring to New Jersey. Presently California stands as the sole recipient of the same-sex tourism and wedding windfall; if New Jersey extended marriage to same-sex couples it could share in that windfall. Massachusetts can’t benefit as current laws prohibit the state from performing same-sex weddings for out-of-state couples.

He continues by saying it would be a quarter of a billion dollar boost to the New Jersey economy over the next three years. Also, 800 new jobs would be created.

NJ City Ordered to Pay Millions to Victims of Anti-Gay Harassment

by Kilian Melloy The EDGE, Boston

A jury has awarded a gay couple nearly $3 million in damages as part of a lawsuit against the city of Seacaucus, NJ.

The couple, Peter DeVries and Timothy Carter, were awarded $2.84 million by the jury after the judge presiding over the case, which was heard in a state Superior Court, ruled against the city.

The plaintiff’s lawyer said that the city must also pay $2 million in legal costs, bringing the total to nearly $5 million.

Garden State Equality’s chairman, Steven Goldstein, said of the verdict and the award, "The considerable amount will send the appropriate signal to other government agencies and workers across the state that they dare not harass people because of their sexual orientation."

full article

New Jersey Gay couple gets day in court

By: E. Assata Wright
Reporter staff writer
Secaucus Reporter

Peter DeVries has waited four years to tell his story to a jury.

He and his romantic partner, Timothy Carter, have filed a civil rights lawsuit against the town of Secaucus, the Secaucus Volunteer Fire Department, and the local police department for violating their civil rights based on sexual orientation.

"Tim said, 'You've got to come hear this.'

"DeVries went to the first floor of their rented home on Schopmann Drive, which was located next to the North End Firehouse.

It was then that DeVries heard three men allegedly yelling, "Homo! Homo! Homo! We don't want you in this town. Come on out, you chicken[expletive]."

He said he then heard something he'll never forget: "We will kill you, you [expletive] faggots."

The threat, he testified, was repeated three times.

The three volunteer firefighters whom the plaintiffs allege were the ringleaders in the attack - Charles Snyder Sr., Charles Snyder Jr., and Charles Mutschler - testified on May 8 and 15.

On the stand, the firefighters invoked their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.

full article

Planning Board member won't resign

This is a 2nd followup. In the previous followup Edward Thomas had resigned.

Of course this all stems from the original story where;

Planning board vice chair Edward Thomas told the attorney: “Before you
start, I would like to remind you that is an application for a child’s desert
shop, and your commentary, if you could please refrain from making any
statements extending from your own possibly inappropriate sexual ‘preferences’
in this matter.”

The attorney said, “I don’t know what inappropriate sexual ‘preferences’
are.”

Edward Thomas said, “Keep your pedophilia to yourself, and talk to the
facts.”

Carol Gorga Williams of The Asbury Park Press reports:

Vice Chairman Edward Thomas, who before the April 22 City Council meeting told Mayor Adam Schneider that he would “retire'' in the wake of the furor over comments he made March 18, said he believes he has widespread support in the town where his family has lived for generations. He said he will no longer consider leaving the board he has served for more than 20 years.

Schneider wants him to step down. But it is unclear whether there is enough support on the council to force a hearing to determine whether officials have “cause'' to remove Thomas, whose term expires at the end of 2009.

Read her full article here

Gay ex-gov, wife divorce trial to start

by Angela Delli Santi
Associated Press

TRENTON, N.J. - She claims she was duped into marriage by a closeted gay man who needed the cover of a wife to advance his political career. He says he gave her a child and the coattails she rode to the governor's mansion, thus fulfilling the marriage contract.

As Jim and Dina Matos McGreevey's three-and-a-half-year separation approaches the duration of their marriage, the former first couple is about to become unhitched _ finally _ when their divorce trial starts Tuesday.

full article

Followup: Embattled city board member quits over remarks

By Carol • Gorga Williams
Coastal Monmouth Bureau
Asbury Park Press

backstory

LONG BRANCH — Planning Board Vice Chairman Edward Thomas, under fire because of comments he made at a March 18 meeting that critics said linked homosexuality to pedophilia, will leave the board on which he has served more than two decades.

Thomas said he is devastated to find his reputation in tatters, adding that it has very nearly driven him to suicide in the last few weeks. He said he will walk away from the Planning Board because it is in the best interests of the city.

Mayor Adam Schneider said at Tuesday night's City Council meeting that Thomas will resign — although Thomas, 45, had said earlier he considers the action a "retirement." Either way, his leaving had been sought by Garden State Equality, a statewide group that lobbies for civil rights for members of the gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual communities.

"I take no particular pleasure in any of this," said Schneider, noting that Thomas has worked hard for the city for many years. "He did make a serious mistake five weeks ago. . . . It was clearly inappropriate, for which no excuses can be made. I'm sorry it came to this. I think Mr. Thomas recognizes it is not a pleasant way to end a career of public service."

full article

NJ Public Official Equated Being LGBT with Pedophilia

UPDATE: Thomas resigns

At the last Planning Board meeting in Long Branch, there was an exchange between Planning Board vice chair Edward Thomas and an attorney present to oppose a new building for a very popular, heavily trafficked ice cream shop in a more residential part of the city. Here’s what happened, verbatim, as we just heard on the audiotape of the meeting:

Planning board vice chair Edward Thomas told the attorney: “Before you start, I would like to remind you that is an application for a child’s desert shop, and your commentary, if you could please refrain from making any statements extending from your own possibly inappropriate sexual ‘preferences’ in this matter.”

The attorney said, “I don’t know what inappropriate sexual ‘preferences’ are.”

Edward Thomas said, “Keep your pedophilia to yourself, and talk to the facts.”

The crowd gasped in horror.

We haven’t a clue as to whether the attorney is LGBT or not. Regardless, Edward Thomas’ comments were an outrageous homophobic slander on all LGBT people in our state.

Garden State Equality has a zero-tolerance policy for homophobia and transphobia in New Jersey. Please join us Tuesday night to tell Edward Thomas he has to resign.

Help GSE by joining their protest this Tuesday night, April 15, 2008 at 7:00 pm, Long Branch City Hall, 344 Broadway, 2nd floor. For more info, you can email GSE Chair, Steven Goldstein at goldstein@gardenstateequality.com. I’m emailing Steve to see how those of us who cannot make it to the protest can help.

NJ radio host calls for violence against local school superintendent

LEXINGTON, Mass. -- A local school official was the target of an attack by a New Jersey radio show host because of what is being taught to students.

The topic of teaching children about homosexuality is very controversial, and it is a debate that is happening all over the country. Recently, a radio host in New Jersey advocated the use of violence against the Lexington School Superintendent because of the curriculum in the district.

"I would laugh if some of the people involved in this issue, went over to the superintendent's house, grabbed him by the neck, and beat the (expletive) out of him," the radio host said.

Recently, two civil lawsuits have been filed against the school district because of its controversial curriculum. Elementary school students are expected to read books like King and King," which depicts a marriage ceremony for two kings.

The Superintendent says that he stands by the school curriculum, and it will continue as scheduled.

The Superintendent has had police watch over his home the past few days because of the threats.

full article

Burger King gay bashing

A Union City, NJ, gay couple were allegedly beaten by Burger King employees after asking for a refund.

The jersey Journal reported on Nov. 3 about the crime and subsequent indictment of Angel Carabello and Christopher Soto, two Jersey City men who were working at the Burger King at the time and who faces charges of aggravated assault, along with a first degree hate crime charge.

The July 22 incident reportedly began with the couple, two men in their 40s, requesting that they be given a refund when an item they had ordered turned out not to be available.

read the entire story

Civil Unions are not the same as marriage

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - New Jersey's civil unions law has failed to provide all the benefits of marriage to at least one in five same-sex couples, a gay rights group told a panel Wednesday that will report its findings to the governor and state Legislature.

More than 300 of the 1,514 same-sex couples who have joined in civil unions have complained to Garden State Equality, the state's leading gay rights group, about employers denying them benefits under the law, said David M. Smith, the group's deputy director.

Craig Ross said that when he lost his white-collar job and tried to get benefits on his partner's plan, the couple were denied despite their civil union because they aren't "married.''

"Calling our relationship and our legal status a civil union, I believe, gives my company an easy out,'' Ross said. "Calling it what it is - a marriage - makes denial of those benefits obvious for what it is: discrimination.''