COLAGE is looking for Speak OUT members to represent youth with LGBT parents at this upcoming commission meeting. If you are interested and able to attend, please contact Meredith Fenton, COLAGE Program Director.

The New Jersey Civil Union Review Commission, empowered to recommend whether New Jersey should upgrade its current civil union law to real marriage equality, is seeking youth and young adults with LGBT parents to testify at the Commission's next meeting, on Wednesday, April 16, 2008 at 2:30 pm at 140 East Front Street in Trenton.

At this meeting, the Commission will focus on the beneficial psychological impact that marriage equality would have on children of LGBT parents. When New Jersey enacts a marriage equality law, the youth and young adults being raised by same-sex couples who would have the same label for their parents – married – rather than the separate, stigmatizing and difficult-to-understand label of civil union. Kids in LGBT families would grow up knowing that their parents are married, or certainly have the freedom to marry, like all other kids.

The Commission welcomes both youth and young adults and/or their LGBT parents to testify. It would do the cause a world of good. The Commission’s vice chair is Steven Goldstein, who also heads the statewide LGBT advocacy organization Garden State Equality, and he’d be happy to work with families willing to testify. Please contact Steven directly at Goldstein@GardenStateEquality.org or cell (917) 449-8918.