New Jersey State Supreme Court backs rights for same sex unions ...

... but leaves it up to "... the democratic process" to decide whether such unions may be called 'marriage' or something else.

I know some purists within the gay community will see this as not good enough, as they think that nothing less than an institution recognised as a 'marriage' will do, but to me what really matters is that the rights granted by that union, whatever it is called, are exactly equivalent to those conferred upon a heterosexual couple by the institution traditionally known as 'marriage'. And in that context, it seems to me, the important part of the New Jersey ruling is where it states that same-sex couples are entitled to:

"the same rights and benefits enjoyed by opposite-sex couples under the civil marriage statutes."

- this is pretty much what we now have in the UK since the Civil Partnerships Act came into effect almost a year ago.

However, as the New Jersey legislation obviously has most importance for Americans here is what two prominent US bloggers have to say on the matter - Andrew Sullivan describes it as "A sane and wise decision ..." and the InstaPundit (Glenn Reynolds) says that, despite what one might at first think it represents "... a clean win for gay marriage advocates, not a partial victory.".