DISPATCHES by Hank Kalet: Getting state to ‘Think Equal’

Gay marriage at the center of commercial campaign

By: Hank Kalet
   John R. Bohrer wants New Jersey residents to "Think Equal."
   The 22-year-old Monroe resident helped write and produce four 30-second television ads designed to show New Jerseyans that civil unions are nothing more than a pale substitute for marriage equality.
   Mr. Bohrer helped write and produce the ads with Juan Melli, the 26-year-old Princeton resident who runs BlueJersey.net, a progressive blogging site that has been promoting same-sex marriage. (Disclosure: I occasionally post to BlueJersey.)
   The ads — which cost about $4,500 to produce and were paid for by Mr. Bohrer and Mr. Melli — are based on the popular Mac spots, which portray the Macs as a brash and hip and PCs as nerdly, suit-wearing nebbishes. The ads right now can be seen on the BlueJersey site or at www.gardenstateequality.org — the pair do not have the money right now to get them on cable or broadcast television. Mr. Melli told the Herald News of Passaic County that he hopes the ad will become "viral" on the Web.
   "We think this is the kind of thing that people will send around to each other," he said.
   The Think Equal ads spoof the Mac-PC ads to underscore the very real distinctions between civil unions and marriage.
   The first ad, released Tuesday on the Web, shows two women — a "married" one dressed in bright, flowery clothing, the other, "civil unionized" woman dressed in darker clothing. They both say they have the same legal rights and benefits, including health insurance and pensions, but there is a difference.
   The married woman’s husband was in an accident and she was allowed to see him in the hospital and received regular updates on his condition from the staff.
   "Me too," civil-unionized says about an injured partner. "I told the nurse that my civil union allows visitation and she wouldn’t let me in or tell me what happened"
   "Oh, that’s good to know," the married woman says.
   "I think so," civil-unionized responds, haltingly as the screen fades and the slogan, "Think Equal," appears.
   Mr. Bohrer, who is straight, said the spots are meant to highlight "the common legal benefits that marriage and civil unions share, but the uncommon ways in which they are enforced" and to show that the expanded civil union rules being contemplated by the state Legislature will only leave in place a system that remains patently unfair and unequal.
   He points to the story of Paula Long and Rosalind Heggs, a South Jersey couple whose Vermont civil union certificate meant nothing to the hospital treating Ms. Heggs after she suffered a heart attack and stroke.
   According to an October story in The Philadelphia Inquirer, the hospital refused to consult Ms. Long and demanded a marriage certificate to prove they were together. Ms. Long was unable to give consent for Ms. Heggs’ blood transfusion. The hospital, instead, required the consent of Ms. Heggs’ sister in Maryland, the story said.
   "They had a civil union from Vermont but they still had to go through another relative," Mr. Bohrer said. "What kind of equality is that? That’s not equality. Is allowing civil unions in New Jersey going to make it better? There is always going to be that distinction as long as there are these two separate systems."
   And that is the point. The civil union legislation on the table right now — bills have been introduced in the Assembly by Wilfredo Carabello, D-Essex, and the state Senate by Senate President Richard Codey, D-Essex, and Loretta Weinberg, D-Essex — is an improvement over the existing rules. But it fails because it continues to preserve a system of benefits and — this is key — prestige for straight couples that will remain off limits to same-sex pairings.
   It is the point that Deborah Poritz, then chief justice of the state Supreme Court, made in her dissent to the October ruling that forced the Legislature to address the issue. The court ruled that same-sex couples were entitled to all the benefits and rights of heterosexual couples, but left it to the Legislature to determine how those rights would be guaranteed.
   "By excluding same-sex couples from civil marriage, the State declares that it is legitimate to differentiate between their commitments and the commitments of heterosexual couples," Chief Justice Poritz wrote. "Ultimately, the message is that what same-sex couples have is not as important or as significant as ‘real’ marriage, that such lesser relationships cannot have the name of marriage."
   That out has allowed the Legislature to avoid doing what is right, according to Dennis C. McGrath, a gay-rights activist from Trenton who grew up in Kendall Park. He said in an e-mail Tuesday that the Legislature is unlikely to allow same-sex couples to marry "for at least the next two state election cycles."
   "It’s wrong, it’s gutless, but it’s also typical NewJersey politician behavior," he said.
   New Jersey legislators, he said, have one basic rule.
   "Never do anything that might threaten your re-election, whether it be to balance the budget before it melts, rebuke your colleague’s ethical lapses in real time, or fully redress discrimination against a minority before the courts force it," he said. "Mount Laurel II, the Abbott decision, pay-to-play, marriage equality — each of these situations hang in seemingly eternal limbo because the Legislature would rather eat ground glass than grow backbones."
   Mr. Bohrer and Mr. Melli are hoping that their ad campaign — along with a push by the gay-rights organization Garden State Equality — can alter the political balance.
Hank Kalet is managing editor of the South Brunswick Post and The Cranbury Press. He can be reached via e-mail, or through his weblog, Channel Surfing.