Judge Orders New Jersey to Allow Gay Marriage

Supporters crowd the boardwalk

This is great news, but we cannot celebrate just yet. Nope, in spite of the fact that New Jersey has a legislature that is totally on board with marriage equality (something they proved in February 2012 when a same-sex marriage bill was passed in both houses of the legislature but vetoed by Gov Christie), and the polls show a majority in New Jersey favor marriage equality, the cog in this tortuous process is, of course, Republian Governor Christie, who is vowing to appeal this latest decision. (Hey, is anybody surprised by this?)

It is no secret that Governor Christie has aspirations for higher public office. We all know he's got hopes of one day running for president. So doing nothing is not an option for him and in fact would most likely prove fatal to any hopes he has of becoming the Republican presidential nominee in 2016.

It just feels so heinous to me that any politician can so callously and transparently use the basic rights of a whole segment of his or her constituent population to advance their own political career. Especially when we all know that Chris Christie will NEVER be the Republican's nominee for president. He is no favorite of mine, but he is really loathed by the Republican base. He is just not enough of a psychopath to be a viable candidate for this crowd. So a whole segment of New Jersey's population will just have to endure the tortuous highs and lows of this battle so Governor Christie can play this game out. And it will be their rights he'll use as bargaining chips to try and please a crowd who will never love him back.