It is expected that the state Assembly will also vote for approval of the bill on Thursday, even though Christie is vowing to veto the bill.
The state of New Jersey does not have a law or an amendment that bans gay marriage but the lawmakers have yet to permit gay marriage. Washington became the seventh state to legalize gay marriage on Monday when Governor Christine Gregoire signed the bill into law. Washington D.C. also permits gay marriage.
The Supreme Court of New Jersey ruled back in 2006 that lawmakers had to give legal protections to lesbian and gay committed couples that married couples receive. The Supreme Court also said that these protections do not need to be called marriage. Civil unions within the state were created in response to this ruling in 2006.
The previous vote regarding gay marriage occurred in January of 2010, when previous Governor Jon Corzine was still in office. A couple of late defections destroyed the bill. Then, when Christie arrived in office, the hope for the bill’s advocates died. The president of the Senate, Stephen Sweeney, a Democrat from Deptford said that he made a mistake by abstaining from the 2010 bill’s vote. Sweeney said that he vowed to put gay marriage at the top of his to-do list in 2012.
"You never know who's going to forward — a daughter, a son, a neighbor of significant meaning of a senator or assemblyperson — and change a mind," he said.
The vote was pretty much a party-line vote, with only two Democrats voting no and two Republicans voting yes to the bill.
"It is my opinion that our republic was established to guarantee liberty to all people," said Republican Jennifer Beck from Red Bank. "It is our role to protect all of the people who live in our state."
A Demarest Republican, Senator Gerald Cardinale, said "This bill simply panders to well-financed pressure groups and is not in the public interest."
