Morris Co. Town Accused Of LGBTQ Marriage Discrimination

HANOVER, NJ — Hanover Township has agreed to update its marriage license systems after a state investigation discovered that its website discriminated against LGBTQ couples.

The AG's office issued violation notices to Estell Manor, Fairview, Hanover, Linden and South Toms River for previously published marriage licensing information that restricted license availability to opposite-gender couples and excluded marriage license applicants with a nonbinary gender identity.

According to authorities, Hanover Township's application materials essentially confined marriage licenses to heterosexual couples.

“Marriage is a fundamental right, and in New Jersey, marriage equality is the law,” said Attorney General Platkin. “We launched the Marriage Equality Enforcement Initiative because of our deep commitment to ensuring that municipal governments uphold this basic promise, in both word and deed. The resolutions announced today bring our state one step closer to fulfilling that promise.”

Discriminatory language listed by New Jersey cities and towns was first flagged last summer in a report from the Latino Action Network, Hudson P.R.I.D.E., and Garden State Equality. The report found that several municipal websites expressly limited marriage licenses to "opposite-sex couples."

Patch also found that some of those websites also included instructions for minors to get married. New Jersey legalized same-sex marriage in 2013 and banned child marriages five years later.

Read more: Child Marriage Legal, Same-Sex Not: Outdated Info Given To NJ Couples

Platkin said that the most recent probe was part of an enforcement initiative meant to ensure New Jersey local governments were not discriminating against LGBTQ couples.

According to officials, four of the five enforcement proceedings—against Estell Manor, Fairview, Linden and South Toms River—were quickly handled through Assurances of Voluntary Compliance (AVC).

However, the controversy in Hanover was settled by a negotiated settlement agreement (NSA). The Division on Civil Rights (DCR) filed an administrative complaint against the township after it refused to resolve the issue prior to litigation.

Hanover Township has since agreed to provide verification of a written policy it has adopted prohibiting discrimination against people using or seeking to use its services; remove gender-restrictive language on its website regarding who may obtain a marriage license, including language restricting marriage licenses to people of binary genders or opposite gender couples; and update its website to expressly state that marriage licenses are available to all qualifying couples.

Hanover Township Mayor Ronald Francioli did not immediately respond to Patch's request for comment on the matter.

“Our laws forbid discrimination in marriage licensing and other basic government services on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation, and no government here in New Jersey should stand in the way of that basic promise of equality,” DCR Director Sundeep Iyer said. “Today’s resolutions reflect our ongoing commitment to ensuring that marriage equality remains a reality for our state’s LGBTQIA+ residents.”

Hanover Township School District

For months, the New Jersey Attorney General's Office and the Hanover Township School District have been at odds over the implementation of a school policy that would require the district to notify parents of specific student behavior, citing concerns that LGBTQ students would be outed against their will.

Following the adoption of their initial "Parental Notice of Material Circumstances" policy by the Hanover school board in May, Platkin filed a lawsuit against the district and board, claiming that the policy would have outed LGBTQ youth to their parents.

At a court hearing on May 30, the two parties appeared before State Superior Court Judge Stuart Minkowitz, who, according to NJ Advance Media, asked the parties to come to an agreement on policy revisions while he deliberated.

After that hearing, the school district made revisions to the policy, removing all mentions of gender identity and sexual orientation.

However, a restraining injunction has once again prevented the Hanover district and school board from implementing the updated policy.

The injunction, which was obtained on Sept. 29, was granted because the policy could put LGBTQ pupils in danger of being exposed by staff without their consent, Platkin said.

The Hanover Township Board of Education said that they were "disappointed" by the judge's refusal to confront the issue head-on and apply "well-settled constitutional law" to the governor’s and attorney general’s overreaching imposition of their "progressive ideology" on public schools.

Earlier this fall, the Hanover Township School District also made headlines after repealing policy 5756, which was implemented by the state in 2018 and barred parents from being alerted if their child was transgender.

Hanover Township adopted the policy in March 2019; however, recent comments by state officials indicated that the policy is not required, sparking conversations around the state about the policy's impact on parental rights.

"Governor Murphy and his activist Attorney General, they are scared," said Board of Education President Lisa Bomengo. "What the attorney general is doing is sending a message to all the other districts to toe the line and accept the progressive and novel idea that government schools can parent our children better than parents can," she continued.