I believe government should have nothing to do with marriage. Government should only issue “union licenses” as the contract between two individuals, regardless of gender. Marriage should be a church rite performed in addition to the civil union, if the couple so chooses.

N.J. Legislature Votes to Allow Same-Sex Unions By Robin Shulman, Washington Post Staff Writer

With a mandate from New Jersey’s highest court to offer gay couples the same rights as heterosexuals, the state legislature voted Thursday to create civil unions but stopped short of using the word “marriage.”

Gov. Jon S. Corzine (D) has said he will sign the bill into law, making New Jersey the third state, after Vermont and Connecticut, to offer civil unions, which extend to gay men and lesbians all the rights state law affords married people but give them a separate status. [Only Massachusetts has legalized marriage for gay couples.]

The problem is that “separate but equal” status we have rejected in matters of race. Equality requires equal status. Let all couples obtain identical “unions” and leave it to the churches to decide who they will marry. mjh