Gay rights activist Steven Goldstein called New Jersey the “epitome of tolerance and inclusion.” Photo by Robert Wiener
January 10, 2008
A bill that covers gays, lesbians, and transgender people as victims of hate crimes is now law in the state of New Jersey, having received strong backing from key leaders of the Jewish community.
After a 35-0 vote in the State Senate, the bill passed the State Assembly by a vote of 65 to 10, with five abstentions, on Jan. 7, the final day of the legislative session.
Gov. Jon Corzine has pledged to sign the bill, which includes “gender identity or expression” as protected classes in a law that already covers race, religion, ethnic origin, disability, and sexual preference as protected classes.
Etzion Neuer, director of the Anti-Defamation League’s NJ region, testified in support of the new law at the State Senate Judiciary Committee last month.
“I am very, very pleased,” he said. “This passage is exciting because it is an opportunity to see progress. We are seeing our standards being raised, and as a society, we are progressing and setting a standard of higher expectations for law enforcement and our schools.
Felice Maranz, director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Central New Jersey, said her organization supports these kinds of measures overall. Coming on the heels of an attack on a Jewish cemetery in New Brunswick (see page 1), she called the hate crimes measure “especially relevant, in the Jewish community and in general.”
The law creates a commission to study the problem of school bullying and requires that school systems create and enforce strong anti-bullying policies within the next 120 days.
That requirement especially pleased Neuer, whose organization would have a seat on the 14-member commission.
“It is no accident that we are talking about hate crimes and bullying in the same conversation,” he said. “We’ve seen an absolute relationship between these two things. We hope our school systems will be able to turn out well-rounded young people who will become well-rounded adults so we will never have to deal with hate crimes and the new law that is on the books.”
Steven Goldstein, the gay rights activist and rabbinical student who is executive director of Garden State Equality, was a prime supporter of the bill. He was so confident of its passage that he left for vacation in Israel before the Assembly vote.
“Trust me, if we had a chance of losing this, I would have been in New Jersey,” Goldstein said in a cell phone interview from Tel Aviv. “This shows you how progressive New Jersey is. It passed unanimously in the Senate and included the votes of conservative Republicans. New Jersey is the epitome of tolerance and inclusion.”
Goldstein said he spotted a sea change in attitudes back in 2005, when his organization campaigned successfully to have transgendered people protected by anti-discrimination laws.
“When we lobbied legislators, not a single member looked at us with discomfort. Not a single member said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me, wanting me to include those people in a law.’
“Unfortunately, that kind of attitude does occur in other states, but in New Jersey, there is an immediate embracing of the fact that nobody but nobody should face discrimination or be the victim of a hate crime.”