NJ: Division on Civil Rights rules in favor of same-sex couple's use of Ocean Grove Camp boardwalk
by: Pam Spaulding
Mon Dec 29, 2008 at 18:00:00 PM EST
http://pamshouseblend.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=8838Good news from Garden State Equality (via email):
The New Jersey Division on Civil Rights ruled today in favor of a same-sex couple who sued the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association for banning civil union ceremonies at the town's public boardwalk pavilion.
The Division ruled that the couple, Harriet Bernstein and Luisa Paster, have "probable cause" to claim that the ban violates New Jersey's Law Against Discrimination. Today's opinion was based on the boardwalk pavilion's being public by nature of its historic use, open to everyone for decades without restrictions. In fact, the Camp Meeting Association had for years advanced that very argument, by applying for - and receiving - state tax breaks under New Jersey's "Green Acres" program that requires facilities to be open and nondiscriminatory to all.
As the Division on Civil Rights ruled today, the Camp Meeting Association's ban was discriminatory because it has prohibited same-sex civil unions at the public boardwalk pavilion, but not opposite-sex marriages.
