Governor Chris Christie attempted to appeal this decision to the New Jersey Supreme Court but on Octothe court turned down his appeal and the lower court's ruling stands. įollowing a court decision on September 27, the state, effective October 21, 2013, has recognized and performed same-sex marriages. New Jersey has provided benefits to same-sex partners of state employees since 2004. Same-sex couples legally married in another state or country may be divorced in New Jersey, a Superior Court has ruled. 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. Marriage between persons of the same sex, however, are not mentioned in the statutes, which do not ban it either. Marriage, as the popular vehicle of state recognition of relationships, is mentioned in 850 of New Jersey's statutes. Main article: Same-sex marriage in New Jersey In June 2021, the New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal made an official apology for the state's harassment of bar keepers and patrons. Division of Alcoholic Beverage Commission. In 1967, a state court invalidated this interpretation in One Eleven Liquors, Inc. It interpreted a regulation 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.
Freedom of assembly įrom its establishment in 1933, the New Jersey Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control regularly harassed LGBT bar patrons. Ciuffini (1978), 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 over the state's right to regulate private sexual conduct." New Jersey repealed its sodomy law in 1978.
In the last court case in this series, State v. Ĭourt decisions in New Jersey gradually restricted the application of sodomy laws to exclude first married couples, and then all heterosexual sexual relations. After reunification and independence, New Jersey abrogated the colonial common law, but created its own statuary sodomy law, the penalties for which were often modified.
When the province was divided into East and West Jersey, the Quaker-dominated West maintained a criminal code that was silent on the issue of sodomy. Sodomy was a capital crime in New Jersey from when the Duke of York took control of the province from the Dutch.
LGBT people were allowed to gather in drinking establishments in 1967 and allowed to have intimate relationships in 1978.
A series of court decisions have enlarged the areas of LGBT rights. Since the late 1960s, state-sanctioned discrimination against LGBT people has become increasingly less acceptable. LGBT persons in New Jersey enjoy strong protections from discrimination, and have had the right to marry since October 21, 2013.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender ( LGBT) persons in New Jersey have the same rights and responsibilities as heterosexuals. Sexual orientation and gender identity protections ( see below)Ĭivil unions since 2007, Same-sex marriage since 2013 Transgender people allowed to change legal gender