| LGBT rights in New Jersey | |
|---|---|
New Jersey (USA) |
|
| Same-sex sexual activity legal? | Legal since 1978 |
| Gender identity/expression | Sex change recognized |
| Recognition of relationships |
Civil unions since 2007 |
|
Restrictions:
|
No marriage |
| Adoption | Same-sex couples may adopt jointly |
| Discrimination protections | Sexual orientation and gender identity protections (see below) |
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trangender (LGBT) persons in New Jersey have most of the same rights and responsibilities as heterosexuals. With the notable exception of same-sex relationships, where civil unions are offered and federal benefits denied, LGBT persons in New Jersey enjoy strong protection from discrimination.
Starting from the late 1960s, state-sanctioned discrimination against LGBT people was becoming increasingly less acceptable, and the courts led the way in its prohibition, when LGBT people were allowed to gather in drinking establishments in 1967 and allowed to have intimate relationships in 1978. Antigay adoption policies by New Jersey's state welfare agency were dropped in 1997.
The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, amended to include sexual orientation and gender identity in 1991 and 2006 prohibits discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations. In addition, criminal law deters bias-motivated crimes against LGBT individuals, and New Jersey schools are required to adopt anti-bullying measures that address LGBT students.
Contents |
Sodomy was a capital crime in New Jersey from when the Duke of York wrested control of the province from the Dutch. When the province was split into the autonomous East and West, however, the Quaker-dominated West maintained a criminal code that was silent on the issue of sodomy. After reunification and independence, New Jersey abrogated English law, but created its own statuary sodomy law, the penalties for which would be modified for many years.[1]
Court decisions in New Jersey gradually restricted the application of sodomy laws to exclude married couples,[1] and then heterosexuals generally. The last court case of this sort was State v. Ciuffini (1978), where a state appellate court struck down the state's sodomy laws as unconstitutional, finding that "the individual’s right of personal privacy and autonomy prevail[s] over the state’s right to regulate private sexual conduct."[2] New Jersey's sodomy law was repealed in 1978.[3]
From its establishment post-Prohibition, the New Jersey Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control harassed LGBT bar patrons regularly. It used an interpretation of a regulating preventing licensees from serving "any known criminals, gangsters, racketeers, swindlers, prostitutes, female impersonators or other persons of ill repute" to revoke the liquor licenses of bars serving a predominantly homosexual customer base.[4] This position was reversed in One Eleven Liquors, Inc. vs. Division of Alcoholic Beverage Commission (1967).[5]
Marriage, as the popular vehicle of state recognition of romantic relationships, has mention in 850 separate statutes in New Jersey law.[6] Marriage between persons of the same sex, however, are not read into the existing statutes, which do not explicitly ban it either.[5] The statutes were challenged in Lewis v. Harris (2006), where the legislature chose civil unions over marriage in the resulting mandate for equal rights and responsibilities of marriage for same-sex couples.[7] Same-sex couples legally married in another state or country that allows it may be divorced in New Jersey, a Superior Court ruled, even though their marriages are still not recognized.[8]
New Jersey has provided benefits to same-sex partners of state employees since 2004.[9]
New Jersey never had a policy of denying adoption of children based on sexual orientation, however the New Jersey Division of Youth and Family Services had a policy of denying consent to joint adoption by unmarried couples. This was changed in 1997. The sexual orientation of parents are not necessarily considered a dispositive factor in considering the best interest of the child, be they prospective in adoption or current in child custody cases.[5]
New Jersey's broad Law Against Discrimination was amended in 1991 to include "affectional or sexual orientation" and in 2006 to include "gender identity and expression"[10] as prohibited bases of discrimination. The law prohibits discrimination in employment and public accommodations, which the New Jersey Supreme Court took to be as broad as including the Boy Scouts of America for its public dealings, which was reversed by the Supreme Court of the United States in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale.[5]
Enhanced penalties are available for crimes committed in New Jersey with a bias based on the presumed sexual orientation or gender identity of the victim, as well as sensitivity training sentencing options for judges.[11] Anti-LGBT bullying is also prohibited in New Jersey schools, and all schools are required to post and distribute their anti-bullying policies.[12]
Transgendered persons may request an amended birth certificate with a corrected name and sex after undergoing sex reassignment surgery (SRS).[13] They also may enter marriages with persons of the opposite gender, after SRS (a.k.a. their original gender), without the state recognizing that as a (void) same-sex marriage.[14]
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