LGBT rights in New Jersey
| LGBT rights in New Jersey | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Same-sex sexual activity legal? | Legal since 1978 |
| Gender identity/expression | Sex change recognized |
| Discrimination protections | Sexual orientation and gender identity protections (see below) |
| Family rights | |
| Recognition of relationships |
Civil unions since 2007, same-sex marriage since 2013 |
| Adoption | Same-sex couples may adopt jointly |
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons in New Jersey have the same rights and responsibilities as heterosexuals. LGBT persons in New Jersey enjoy strong protection from discrimination, and have the right to marry as of October 21, 2013.
Since the late 1960s, state-sanctioned discrimination against LGBT people has become increasingly less acceptable. A series of court decisions have enlarged the areas of LGBT rights. LGBT people were allowed to gather in drinking establishments in 1967 and allowed to have intimate relationships in 1978. Antigay adoption policies by New Jersey's state welfare agency were dropped in 1997.
The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, amended to include sexual orientation and gender identity in 1991 and 2006, prohibits discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations. Criminal law deters bias-motivated crimes against LGBT individuals, and New Jersey schools are required to adopt anti-bullying measures that address LGBT students. In August 2013, Governor Chris Christie signed a bill into law prohibiting mental health providers from providing so-called "reparative therapy" to LGBT minors.
Sodomy was a capital crime in New Jersey from when the Duke of York took control of the province from the Dutch. When the province was divided into East and West Jersey, the Quaker-dominated West maintained a criminal code that was silent on the issue of sodomy. After reunification and independence, New Jersey abrogated English law, but created its own statuary sodomy law, the penalties for which were often modified.
Court decisions in New Jersey gradually restricted the application of sodomy laws to exclude first married couples and then all heterosexual sexual relations. In the last court case in this series, State v. Ciuffini (1978), a state appellate court struck down the state's sodomy laws as unconstitutional, finding that "the individual's right of personal privacy and autonomy prevail[s] over the state's right to regulate private sexual conduct." New Jersey repealed its sodomy law in 1978.
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