(12-03) 14:52 PST Trenton, N.J. (AP) --
"Gay rights activists in New Jersey pressing lawmakers to approve a same-sex marriage law while there is still a governor in office who would sign it won assurances Thursday that the legislation would be posted for a vote.
Sen. Paul Sarlo, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he would keep a promise to gay marriage proponents by posting the marriage equality act on Monday. But, he said he'd vote against the bill, underscoring the proposal's uncertain outcome.
Senate President Richard Codey said he'd bring the bill to the full Senate next Thursday — if it clears Judiciary.
A similar proposal was defeated in New York on Wednesday in an unexpectedly wide 24-38 Senate decision, eight votes shy of the 32 needed for passage. It had passed earlier in the Assembly, and Gov. David Paterson had pledged to support it.
The result in New York, where some Democrats saw the defeat as a betrayal, prompted Sen. Ray Lesniak, a Democratic co-sponsor of the New Jersey bill, to declare, "This is not the New York Legislature. The New York Legislature is dysfunctional. We're better than that."
Supporters of the New Jersey bill have ramped up pressure in recent weeks on officials who control the legislative agenda, as the term of Gov. Jon Corzine winds down. Corzine, who leaves office Jan. 19, has said he would sign a bill legalizing same-sex marriages; his successor, Gov.-elect Chris Christie, has said he would veto it.
"There are many ways to win marriage equality; certainly to win marriage equality legislatively — which is our goal and, indeed, our obsession, we have to win while Jon Corzine is governor," said Steven Goldstein, head of Garden State Equality, the state's largest and most visible gay rights group.
Legislative leaders in New Jersey have been reluctant to put the bill to a vote — thus forcing lawmakers to take a public stance on a complex moral issue — unless they are fairly certain it would pass.
The bill needs 21 votes in the Senate, and its prospects in the chamber remained uncertain Thursday.
"God be willing, we'll have 21 votes," Lesniak told scores of gay rights advocates who had assembled outside the Statehouse.
Len Deo, president of the conservative New Jersey Family Policy Council, said he'll continue to try to defeat the bill.
"Changing the definition of marriage is not like approving a budget," said Deo, who believes the issue is too weighty for lawmakers and ought to be put directly to voters.
Gay marriage opponents, including Orthodox Jews, also rallied outside the Statehouse on Thursday.
Both houses of the Legislature must pass the bill before it goes to the governor. The legislative session wraps up a week earlier.
New Jersey currently has a civil unions law, which gives gay couples the benefits of marriage but not the title. About 4,200 couples have entered into civil unions.
Gay rights advocates say the separate-but-equal status isn't enough. Opponents argue that marriage should remain between one man and one woman.
On Thursday, Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts, who has been waiting for the Senate to act first, said he strongly supports the marriage equality bill, "especially considering how our civil union law isn't even living up to the most modest of hopes and encourages unequal treatment of same-sex couples and their children."
Roberts said he would continue to discuss the issue with members of the Democratic majority caucus to gauge whether there are sufficient votes for it to pass.
Recent polls show New Jerseyans divided on the issue."
