Garden State Equality is New Jersey’s largest advocacy organization. Since Garden State Equality's founding in 2004, New Jersey has enacted 210 laws at the state, county and municipal levels to advance the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. That's more LGBT civil rights laws enacted in less time than in any other U.S. state – ever. A 2009 year-end study by www.eQualityGiving.com ranks New Jersey as #1 in the United States for LGBT civil rights, tied with California, Iowa and Vermont. In 2008, Garden State Equality became the first statewide civil rights organization in America to be showcased in an Academy Award®-winning film. "Garden State Equality has run the most effective grassroots campaign New Jersey has seen in years," the Star-Ledger has written. Next we will win a marriage equality statute to replace our state's failed civil union law. So welcome to Garden State Equality, a movement making history. We're glad you're here.
If you live in New Jersey, you are represented by one state Senator and two state Assembly members. To find out the names, emails and phone numbers for your three legislators, click here.
To call any of your state legislators to seek a meeting, we strongly suggest you first email the office to ask for a meeting, and then follow up three or four business days later with a call. That is standard protocol for legislative offices, which typically ask you to put your request for a meeting in writing – so it makes sense to start out that way and follow up.
The subject line of your email should be: I’d like to meet the Senator or Assembly member. Or even better: I’m a constituent and I’d like to meet the Senator or Assembly member.
In the body of the email, you would include this information:
Your name
Your organizational or congregational affiliation, if any
Where you are from – the staffer is particularly interested in whether you live in the district
What issue you are calling about
Where you stand on that issue and why.
To email your state legislators to seek a meeting on marriage equality, we suggest youclick here for pointers.
If the legislator’s office calls you back for a meeting, contact Garden State Equality at (973) GSE-LGBT or Contact@GardenStateEquality.org so we can brief you before your meeting.
You need not wait to hear back from the legislator’s office. We recommend that you call the legislator’s office three or four busines days later to follow up on your email.
