Richard Cash and Craig Ross: Civil union couple, denied benefits because employer won’t recognize civil unions as equal to marriage, reads a letter from 30 couples among the hundreds who have experienced the same. For the current, ever-increasing count of civil union couples denied benefits, contact Garden State Equality at Contact@GardenStateEquality.org.

Beth Robinson: Vermont civil rights leader says Vermont is still having problems with its civil union law enacted in 2000 – that “it’s just not true that as time passes, civil unions will achieve parity with marriage."        

Tom Barbera: Massachusetts labor leader says employers in Massachusetts, which has marriage equality, rarely invoke federal law to avoid giving same-sex couples benefits – quite unlike in New Jersey.                    

Lynn Fontaine Newsome: New Jersey State Bar Association president, testifying on behalf of the organization, calls New Jersey's civil union law "a failed experiment" and says it should be replaced by a marriage equality statute.

Judith Ford: Registered nurse talks about the failure of New Jersey’s civil union law to provide her partner with spousal health insurance – and how the resulting economic pressures may force the couple to dissolve their civil union.
    

Rev. Alicia Heath-Toby and Saundra Toby-Heath: Plaintiffs in New Jersey’s marriage equality case, which led to civil unions but stopped short of marriage, say Saundra’s employer won’t grant benefits under New Jersey’s civil union law.
     

Laurin Stahl: Civil union partner talks about the health care obstacles she and her partner have faced at several hospitals because the hospitals don’t respect civil unions like they respect marriage.

Veronica Kairos: Civil union partner reveals that when she reported to jury duty and faced a judge’s questioning, the judge, of all people, was clueless about New Jersey’s civil union law.

Gina Pastino: Civil union partner says her immediate family has suffered four medical emergencies in the past year, and each time New Jersey’s civil union law proved to be a health care obstacle.
   

Lucy O’Brien: Parent talks about the emotional harm New Jersey’s civil union law imposes on one of her children who is gay, who told her, “All I really want is to get married and have children.”

Charles Paragian: Partner in a civil union couple which adopted five children talks about the emotional harm that New Jersey’s civil union law inflicts on the children, one of whom asked, “Why can’t you and Poppy get married?”                                                                  

Dr. Sylvia Rhue: National Black Justice Coalition leader talks about the severe negative impact of New Jersey’s civil union law on African-American LGBT families because they are denied the freedom to marry.