Addressing the members of the New Jersey State Bar Association (NJSBA) Family Law Section at their annual retreat in late March, I discussed how New Jersey laws and courts have treated (more often negatively than not) the LGBT community over the past 75 years. A particular focus of my remarks was the political and legal strategy behind the battle for marriage equality over the past two decades—how recognition of the relationships of committed same-sex couples migrated from an idea to case law to a codified statute.

What a long, strange trip it’s been that brought us to the moment on Jan. 10, 2022, when Governor Murphy signed A5367/S3416 to codify marriage equality as a statutory right for committed same-sex couples. The legislation also requires that all laws concerning marriage and civil union are to be read with gender neutral intent. More than 19 years earlier, Lambda Legal, a national LGBTQ legal advocacy organization, joined Larry Lustberg, Jennifer Ching and the strike team at the Gibbons law firm to file the Oct. 8, 2002, complaint that commenced Lewis v. Harris, 188 N.J. 415 (Oct. 25, 2006), the first of New Jersey’s two marriage equality lawsuits.