After a bill that would have legalized same-sex marriage was voted down by the New Jersey state Senate, six gay and lesbian couples have asked the state Supreme Court to allow them to wed. New Jersey already allows civil unions, which are supposed to guarantee that same-sex couples receive all of the benefits of marriage. But some Garden State gay activists, like Cindy Meneghin, told the Star-Ledger they're still not given the rights they deserve, proving "that civil unions are not equal to marriage."
Meneghin says that even though she and her partner Maureen Kilian, both 52, have a civil union, they aren't treated the way they would be if they were married. Last summer, when Meneghin was hospitalized for appendicitis, she claims that hospital workers didn't understand the rights guaranteed to her partner under their civil union. "I got the same blank stares," Meneghin said. "The bottom line is marriage has meaning that civil unions will never have."
