A group of Democratic New Jersey lawmakers welcomed U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.-5th District) to Trenton, NJ on Monday to offer his support for marriage equality.
“I said over the years that I fought too long and too hard against discrimination based on race and color not to stand up and speak out on discrimination based on sexual orientation,” said Lewis.
The civil rights icon said he had been invited by NJ Congressman Rush Holt (D-NJ-12th District) to address area students before the same sex marriage debate became a heated topic earlier this month.
Lewis disagrees with Gov. Chris Christie’s position that NJ voters should decide the issue in a statewide referendum. He said on Monday that landmark civil rights legislation would have “never won” in southern states in the 1960s.
“We had to march, we had to protest, said Lewis. “Some of us were beaten. Some of us were jailed.”
Democrats have criticized Christie for comments that people involved in the civil rights movement would have been happier to put the matter to public vote than die on the streets of the South.
Christie says his comments have been misconstrued. He says it's clear that option would not have been available.
Politics
In a statement attacking the governor's comments, Democratic Assemblyman Reed Gusciora says Christie would have found allies in late Alabama Gov. George Wallace and late Georgia Gov. Lester Maddox, both segregationists.
On Monday, the governor called the openly gay state lawmaker “numb nuts” for comparing him to former segregationist governors from the South.
Lewis said “the question of civil rights, the question of human rights, is a question of human dignity.”
“If two men want to fall in love and get married, or two women, it's their business, it's not the role of the federal government or the state government to intervene, he said. “Let's do what is right, what is fair, and what is just.”
