BREAKING: NJ Gay Marriage Bill Will Move Forward To Full Senate Vote
As Expected, Narrow Vote Of 7 To 6
After a late start, over seven hours of impassioned speeches from citizens, clergy, scientists, psychologists, and members of the LGBTQ and straight communities, late tonight the New Jersey State Senate Judiciary Committee voted in favor of moving the gay marriage bill forward. The full Senate will vote on the bill on Thursday.
Most of the testimony was in favor of the bill, including an overwhelming number of members of the clergy from many different religious orders. Literally hundreds of citizens signed up to speak to the committee, and over one hundred fifty were able to present their views.
The first speaker was legendary civil rights activist and current NAACP Chairman Julian Bond, who spoke for almost eight minutes in favor of same sex marriage. (You can hear Bond’s entire testimony here.) Bond reminded the committee that Mildred Loving, whose case (Loving vs. Virginia) before the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for interracial couples to marry, fully supported gay marriage.
As Chair of the NAACP, the largest and oldest African-American organization, Bond’s statement, “I believe gay rights are civil rights,” has tremendous meaning. He spoke of Coretta Scott King, and equal protection for all. “Black people, of all people, should not oppose equality, and that is what gay marriage represents.” He continued, “At best, civil unions are separate but equal, and we all know separate is not equal.”
Bond eloquently stated that “Gay and lesbian rights are not ‘special rights.'”
Some of the speakers before the committee spoke of religious concerns, and quoted the bible as reason to oppose marriage equality. However, one speaker, a rabbi, pointed out that “polygamy, child molestation, divorce, rape, are all sanctioned In bible,” but that “times change.” He told the committee that in the bible “there is no mandate to discriminate against same sex couples.â€
Other testimony included a mother and her son, a sixteen-year old high school student who related the taunting and verbal abuse he receives every day he goes to school. One of the Senators called him “a hero,” another called him “a role model,” and said his testimony was his “favorite.” Later, one senator used the sixteen year old’s testimony to rebut the statement of a “teaparty mom” who stated her feeling that a laminated durable power of attorney was a good substitute for a marriage certificate.
Another mother, who has three sons, one of whom is gay, asked the committee to come to her home – “I’m a good host – I’ll bake you cookies,” and tell her gay son that “he’s not good enough.”
As in other states, lawmakers took extreme measures to ensure that “religious protections” were included in the bill. Those concerns were debated to include anyone with a “conscientious objection” against same sex marriage – in other words, protections for people offering wedding services – and will be included in the bill presented before the full Senate.
The debate included issues of hospital visitation, insurance, estate planning and wills, and the problems with the term “civil union.” Senator Cardinale brought up the “unintended consequences” of gay marriage – although what those were specifically were unclear. Earlier, he accused a representative of the state bar association of lying, but of “not lying effectively.”
Members voting “yes” included Republican Bill Baroni, who received thunderous applause from the audience. Also voting yes were Senators Weinberg, Gill, Lezniak, Stack, Scutari, Smith.
Voting no were Cardinale, Beck, Kyrillos, Beck, Girgenti, Sarlo.
Yet to be decided, however, is if and when the New Jersey Assembly will vote upon the bill. If it does not before end of the year, Governor Corzine will not be in office to sign it, and incoming Republican Governor Christie has made clear he will veto the bill.
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Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
