Senate hopefuls voice views on same-sex unions

Published in the Asbury Park Press 10/25/03

By CAROL GORGA WILLIAMS
COASTAL MONMOUTH BUREAU

WEST LONG BRANCH -- Candidates in the 11th District Senate race are divided over the concept of civil unions for same-sex couples, according to their responses at a debate at Monmouth University.

The candidates are Republican state Sen. Joseph A. Palaia, who is being challenged by Democrat Paul X. Escandon of Loch Arbour, Green Party candidate Brian Unger of Long Branch and Libertarian Emerson Ellett of Ocean Township.

All four accepted an invitation from the Monmouth University Political Science Club and Psi Sigma Alpha, the political science honor society, to discuss their positions in advance of the Nov. 4 election. Thursday's 90-minute debate was held in Howard Hall, and the candidates were questioned by a panel of reporters from area newspapers and students from the political science club.

The question about civil unions came from an anonymous student and was submitted to the moderator on an index card.

"I don't approve of it, but to each his own," Palaia said. "If that's their style of life, who am I to stop it?"

Unger was the only candidate to speak extensively on the question, which asked if, as legislators, they would support a measure modeled on a Vermont law that in July 2000 legalized same-sex civil unions.

"The kind of society I envision in the future is a diverse society -- not only racially and ethnically but in their sexual preference," Unger said. "It is a matter of dignity. It is a matter of sophistication. . . . Right now in October 2003, this is an issue just like civil rights were in the 1960s."

He said Asbury Park is enjoying a revival of sorts in part because gay couples were moving into the city and rehabilitating housing and the cultural scene.

Escandon said he wouldn't "stand in the way" of legalizing civil unions but said they could led to increases in insurance fraud if people say they are joined in a civil union just to get a better deal on health insurance.

Ellett, who said he sees nothing wrong with civil unions, agreed that insurance fraud could potentially escalate.