On the day New Jersey made civil unions legal, homosexual activists made clear what they really want is nothing short of "marriage."
Garden State Equality Chairman Steven Goldstein announced a campaign to redefine marriage to include same-sex couples within two years.
"Civil unions are not marriage," he told the New York Daily News. "Marriage is the only currency of commitment the world understands."
Len Deo, president of the New Jersey Family Policy Council, said gay activists are not satisfied with "just getting benefits."
"What they want is total acceptance of their lifestyle," he told CitizenLink. "The only way they can get total acceptance is if they can redefine marriage so that it is no longer gender-specific."
The move comes as no surprise. Caleb H. Price, an issues analyst for Focus on the Family, said the New Jersey campaign is part of a national strategy mapped out last year.
"Basically gay activists are saying openly what we have said all along they were saying," Price said. "They will settle for nothing less than a full-fledged redefinition of marriage to include homosexual couples."
Vermont created civil unions in 2000, after the state Supreme Court ordered lawmakers to take action. In 2005, Connecticut became the first to voluntarily adopt civil unions.
The New Jersey law, passed in December, grew out of a lawsuit filed by seven same-sex couples who claimed the state constitution guaranteed the right to marriage benefits. The state Supreme Court gave the benefits, but not marriage.
Deo said many lawmakers were relieved they were not ordered to create gay marriage, as Massachusetts lawmakers were in 2004.
"The legislators realized that people will not tolerate -- at this point in time and hopefully never -- true same-sex legislation," he said. "They opted for civil unions as an incremental approach, but also hoping that it would satisfy the gay activists."
But it did not.
To protect marriage, pro-family groups are launching a legislative counter-initiative. Deo said they are looking for support from thousands of New Jerseyans.
"People do understand what marriage is, and what it's about," Deo said. "The problem is, once you remove a part of marriage by replacing one gender, then it is no longer redefining the institution -- it is actually destroying it."
Price, meanwhile, advises every state to protect marriage as soon as it can. Homosexual activists are working to advance gay marriage, and their goal is really the normalization of homosexuality.
'What we're seeing here," he said, "is the ultimate push for homosexuality to be embraced and celebrated -- and for any dissenting viewpoints to be suppressed."
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Visit the New Jersey Family Policy Council Web site.
