New Jersey legalizes gay unions

The New Jersey legislature has legalized same-sex civil unions, giving them the same rights and benefits as mixed-sex marriages. The measure does not allow for the unions to be called marriages, however.

The Democratic governor of the state, Jon Corzine, said he would sign the bill into law. The bill follows the state's Supreme Court ruling in October that gay couples were entitled to the same rights as heterosexual couples, BBC Online reported.

Gay rights activists said they were pleased with the progress but would continue to push for same sex unions to be recognised as marriage. Currently, only Massachusetts allows same-sex marriages but several other states have civil union or domestic partnership laws.

The Supreme Court case was brought by seven gay couples, who claimed that the state's constitution entitled them to marry. The court passed the issue on to the legislature, concluding that it "cannot find that the right to same-sex marriage is a fundamental right under our constitution".

In July, the top court in Washington state upheld a gay marriage ban. That decision followed a string of setbacks for same-sex marriage advocates in other parts of the US, including in several states where votes