A handful of gay couples were poised to tie the knot as New Jersey begins legal same-sex marriages just after midnight Monday.
Newark Mayor — and senator-elect — Cory Booker, a supporter of gay rights, plans to preside over the weddings of five gay couples and two straight couples. He had never performed wedding ceremonies of any kind in protest to the state’s ban on same-sex marriages.
Booker was able to drop his ban thanks to a ruling Friday by the state’s highest court, which rejected an appeal sought by Republican Gov. Chris Christie.
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“Tonight we’re going to be marrying people in Newark. I know they're going to be doing it here in Jersey City,” Booker said during a campaign stop with gubernatorial candidate Barbara Buono in Jersey City Sunday. “That alone is a testimony that the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice.”
But several couples seeking to get hitched are upset that town clerks and other state officials were not properly instructed on how to administer licenses to same-sex couples.
“There’s mass confusion and it boils down to the fact that the state should have issued guidance a week ago,” Troy Stevenson, executive director of Garden State Equality, told the Associated Press.
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In fact, Karen and Marcye Nicholson-McFadden, two plaintiffs in the lawsuit that brought marriage equality to the state, said they have not been able to get a license to wed.
Christie maintained that he has ordered the Department of Health to cooperate with the clerks to issue the licenses.
The normally boisterous governor — and likely presidential candidate — had said in the past he would seek to ban gay marriage through the Legislature. But he hasn’t spoken about the Friday ruling.
With News Wire Services
