# NJ Gov. Christie drops opposition to same sex marriage **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 21, 2013, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-gov-christie-drops-opposition-to-same-sex-marriage/671833 "2013-10-21T16:47:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2013, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-gov-christie-drops-opposition-to-same-sex-marriage/671833/1 "2013-10-21T16:47:21Z")
[Story here](http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/21/us-usa-gaymarriage-newjersey-idUSBRE99J0BA20131021). And the weddings have begun!! ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2013, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-gov-christie-drops-opposition-to-same-sex-marriage/671833/2 "2013-10-21T17:28:29Z")
I guess the [Queen Mum](http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2013/07/queen-elizabeth-rips-chris-christie-on-gay-marriage.html) finally got to him ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2013, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-gov-christie-drops-opposition-to-same-sex-marriage/671833/3 "2013-10-21T17:34:30Z")
Isn’t the [Queen Mum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Elizabeth_The_Queen_Mother) dead? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2013, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-gov-christie-drops-opposition-to-same-sex-marriage/671833/4 "2013-10-21T18:38:12Z")
Politician makes political move. Film at 11. Congratulations to the couples in New Jersey, though - and the weddings were going to start today no matter what Christie did. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2013, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-gov-christie-drops-opposition-to-same-sex-marriage/671833/5 "2013-10-21T18:43:53Z")
> [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](#): > > I guess the [Queen Mum](http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2013/07/queen-elizabeth-rips-chris-christie-on-gay-marriage.html) finally got to him Elizabeth II is simply “the Queen”, and that article is obviously satire; she’d never make comments like that (unless of course for some bizarre reason the PM advised her to). Granted her mother, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, did become a bit of a fag had in her golden years. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2013, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-gov-christie-drops-opposition-to-same-sex-marriage/671833/6 "2013-10-21T18:44:35Z")
With New Jersey added, just about one-third of Americans live in a state with same-sex marriage. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2013, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-gov-christie-drops-opposition-to-same-sex-marriage/671833/7 "2013-10-22T01:18:54Z")
Hmm, I work in a school with a fair number of UK English teachers and I hear them use the phrase “queen mum” from time to time. I just always assumed they were talking about the current monarch, not the previous. I’ll have to start eavesdropping for context now. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2013, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-gov-christie-drops-opposition-to-same-sex-marriage/671833/8 "2013-10-22T01:34:44Z")
Well, actually, the Queen Mum was never monarch; her husband George VI was. (BTW, if he had lived as long as his wife, he would have been king until _1997_.) ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2013, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-gov-christie-drops-opposition-to-same-sex-marriage/671833/9 "2013-10-22T03:33:42Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > With New Jersey added, just about one-third of Americans live in a state with same-sex marriage. My personal guess is that within 5 years, all of the blue states will allow it, none of the red states will (with maybe 1 or 2 of each proving the rule), and it’ll then stay that way for the rest of my life. Kinda sad, but _way_ better than I’d have guessed if you asked me in 2005 or so. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2013, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-gov-christie-drops-opposition-to-same-sex-marriage/671833/10 "2013-10-22T08:38:39Z")
> [@TimeWinder](#): > > My personal guess is that within 5 years, all of the blue states will allow it, none of the red states will (with maybe 1 or 2 of each proving the rule), and it’ll then stay that way for the rest of my life. Kinda sad, but _way_ better than I’d have guessed if you asked me in 2005 or so. [According to Nate Silver](http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/26/how-opinion-on-same-sex-marriage-is-changing-and-what-it-means/) by 2020 there will only be a half-dozen Deep South states where same-sex marriage doesn’t enjoy majority popular support. (That’s going by a conservative straight-line extrapolation.) ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2013, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-gov-christie-drops-opposition-to-same-sex-marriage/671833/11 "2013-10-22T14:06:46Z")
> [@TimeWinder](#): > > My personal guess is that within 5 years, all of the blue states will allow it, none of the red states will (with maybe 1 or 2 of each proving the rule), and it’ll then stay that way for the rest of my life. Kinda sad, but _way_ better than I’d have guessed if you asked me in 2005 or so. It’s important to remember that even among those 14 blue states which allow it now, 5 did so only because their courts made them. This process will take time. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2013, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-gov-christie-drops-opposition-to-same-sex-marriage/671833/12 "2013-10-22T15:36:24Z")
He really had little choice. The NJ Supreme Court heard the motion to stop the marriages until the appeal was heard. It was denied. Not only was it denied, it was denied in such a way that it was clear how the appeal would go. > [@](#): > > “The state has advanced a number of arguments, but none of them overcome this reality: Same-sex couples who cannot marry are not treated equally under the law today,” the court said in an opinion by Chief Justice Stuart Rabner. “The harm to them is real, not abstract or speculative.” There was no way the state would win the appeal and there would already be a bunch of legal marriages which had occurred. Although he has shown the willingness to throw away money for political expedience, in this case he did the right thing and didn’t waste time and money on a hopeless appeal. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2013, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-gov-christie-drops-opposition-to-same-sex-marriage/671833/13 "2013-10-22T15:55:17Z")
Are any other states going to have legal same-sex marriage as as result of state court decisions? ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2013, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-gov-christie-drops-opposition-to-same-sex-marriage/671833/14 "2013-10-22T16:36:15Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Are any other states going to have legal same-sex marriage as as result of state court decisions? I’m hoping for PA, but it’s touch-and-go. One-Term Tom isn’t letting up on the defense of the state DOMA law, despite Kathleen Kane, the state AG, declining to do so and passing it off to him. Now Daryl Metcalfe, the Republican state rep who silenced openly gay state rep Brian Sims the day that SCOTUS struck down DOMA, is looking to impeach Kane for dereliction of duty. In other words, Pennsyltucky is now and will be for some time the last northeastern holdout. Joy… ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2013, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-gov-christie-drops-opposition-to-same-sex-marriage/671833/15 "2013-10-22T16:37:25Z")
Oh, and [Tennessee](http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/sex-couples-file-lawsuit-tennessee-20637339) just joined the ranks of states with pending marriage equality lawsuits. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2013, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-gov-christie-drops-opposition-to-same-sex-marriage/671833/16 "2013-10-22T19:38:54Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Are any other states going to have legal same-sex marriage as as result of state court decisions? New Mexico has an active court cases and several counties have started issue marriage licences. Pennsylvania also has a court case; our AG isn’t defending the law, but Gov. Tom Corbett sure is. :rolleyes: _His Excellency_ has openly compared gay couples to children getting married; then backtracked and said brother-sister marriage was a better analogy. > [@Loach](#): > > …There was no way the state would win the appeal and there would already be a bunch of legal marriages which had occurred. Although he has shown the willingness to throw away money for political expedience, in this case he did the right thing and didn’t waste time and money on a hopeless appeal. Whatever he may say in public I’m sure Christie is secretly grateful for the ruling since he can finally wash his hands of the matter. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2013, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-gov-christie-drops-opposition-to-same-sex-marriage/671833/17 "2013-10-22T21:40:34Z")
He doesn’t seem to an ideologue to me, so I strongly suspect his opposition was actually based on a desire to let the voters decide - or, more cynically, to cheaply win social conservative presidential primary cred. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2013, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-gov-christie-drops-opposition-to-same-sex-marriage/671833/18 "2013-10-22T22:12:37Z")
> [@Bob's Zombie](#): > > Politician makes political move. Film at 11. Likely. But it’s interesting (encouraging, even), nonetheless, that an outspoken conservative has the political balls to say, “My views are unchanged, but I will set them aside out of respect for the law.” It’s a strange thing to see coming from a conservative, compromise or even mature concession. I live a long way from NJ, both geographically as well as socially, so I have no idea what kind of governor he is. But from my vantage up here in the mountains he seems to be an unusually decent and reasonable guy. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2013, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-gov-christie-drops-opposition-to-same-sex-marriage/671833/19 "2013-10-22T22:38:38Z")
> [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](#): > > Hmm, I work in a school with a fair number of UK English teachers and I hear them use the phrase “queen mum” from time to time. I just always assumed they were talking about the current monarch, not the previous. I’ll have to start eavesdropping for context now. Yeah, I suspect you misunderstood. I’m not British myself, but I don’t ever recall hearing any of my British friends (or much anyone else, for that matter) refer to Elizabeth II as “The Queen Mum.” That was always her mother (in my lifetime). But the queen mother got mentioned a pretty good deal if royalty were being discussed, as she was a popular figure and lived for quite a long time. I do recall her being a popular “death pool” choice in the late 90s/early 00s. (ETA: For example, [here’s the celebrity death pool 2000](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=20546) for the SDMB, where the Queen Mother gets mentioned by a number of posters.) ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2013, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-gov-christie-drops-opposition-to-same-sex-marriage/671833/20 "2013-10-22T22:46:51Z")
> [@The Great Sun Jester](#): > > Likely. But it’s interesting (encouraging, even), nonetheless, that an outspoken conservative has the political balls to say, “My views are unchanged, but I will set them aside out of respect for the law.” It’s a strange thing to see coming from a conservative, compromise or even mature concession. I live a long way from NJ, both geographically as well as socially, so I have no idea what kind of governor he is. But from my vantage up here in the mountains he seems to be an unusually decent and reasonable guy. He’s an asshole and I wouldn’t piss on him if he was on fire. If you look at my post above it shows a quote from the NJ Supreme Court. They voted unanimously to not give a stay to the state until the appeal went through. The language they used made it clear that there was no way an appeal would work. He made the decision because he had no choice. He is a lawyer after all. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-gov-christie-drops-opposition-to-same-sex-marriage/671833.md?page=2)