HRC Blog

Last night, the Rahway City Council unanimously passed a resolution in support of marriage equality. This comes just weeks after the Board of Chosen Freeholders of Union County, New Jersey's seventh most populous county, unanimously adopted a similar resolution calling on the state legislature to override Gov. Chris Christies veto of the state's marriage equality bill.

The bill passed the legislature with bipartisan support in February 2012 before Gov. Christie struck it down.

“We call upon the other towns in Union County to join with the City of Rahway and the Union County Freeholders and pass similar resolutions in supporting the override,” said the resolution’s lead sponsor, Councilman Bob Bresenhan, Jr., in a statement.

As part of the New Jersey United for Marriage campaign, HRC is on the ground with our partners at Garden State Equality to encourage New Jerseyans in key districts to call on their legislators to override the veto and pass marriage equality once and for all.

With actions like these, cities demonstrate leadership on matters of equality.  This is happening at the local level across the country: where states and the federal government have failed to act, municipalities have stepped up.  More than 170 cities and counties across the country have passed non-discrimination laws that protect their LGBT constituents.  HRC’s Municipal Equality Index demonstrates the ways that many cities can – and do – serve the LGBT people who live and work in those cities. Read the Municipal Equality Index report here, and click here to see the detailed scorecards for the 137 cities the MEI rated in 2012.  The 2013 Municipal Equality Index is rating 291 cities and will be released this fall.

To learn what you can do to help ensure loving, committed same-sex couples in the Garden State the right to marry, please email [email protected]