Today Newark, New Jersey’s Mayor Cory Booker got asked an off-topic question at a press conference. Listen to his amazing off-the-cuff response. The question was this: “The Governor is talking about putting marriage equality to a public referendum. I wonder if you have any feelings on how the Governor has handled this whole question of marriage equality.”

Dear God, we should not be putting civil rights issues to a popular vote to be subject to the sentiments, passions of the day. No minority should have their rights subject to the passions and sentiments of the majority. This is a fundamental bedrock of what our nation stands for.

I get very concerned that we have created in our state and refuse to address, and call it like it is, that we’ve created a second class citizenship in our state. That’s what we have in America right now. We’ve two classes of citizens.

Jackie Robinson said the right of every American to first-class citizenship is the most important issue of our time. Let’s stop the ruse. We have two types of citizens right now in our state.

Citizens like me, who if I choose to marry somebody, I can marry somebody from a different country and they have a right to United States citizenship. I talked to somebody last night whose spouse is looking to be deported. Their spouse is looking to be deported.

I’ve got a right that if I die, I’m married, this first-class citizenship that I have says that my wife will get to avoid estate taxes. The second-class citizens in our country don’t have those rights.

There’s over 1,000 federal laws that create different classes of American citizenship because we’re not treating everybody equally under the law. I read the 14th Amendment clearly. It talks about equal protection under the laws. That was never something that should go out to a popular vote. Whether blacks, women or other minorities, should be equal, first-class citizenship.

Thank God Jackie Robinson, it wasn’t a popular vote whether he should be a professional baseball player.

To me it is infuriating that we are in the 21st century and we haven’t created equality under the law. And so I will be fundamentally, in every fiber of my being, supportive of equal citizenship for all people in this country. Because I know at the end of the day I would not be here, my family wouldn’t have been able to put food on the table for me if it wasn’t for that ideal in America.

Don’t just point to the Governor – we had the chance to do this under the last Governor, and we didn’t have the courage to stand up and do the right thing. I am tired and exhausted that we have a country able to overcome women having second-class citizenship in this country, Blacks having a second-class citizenship in this country, Latinos having a second-class citizenship in this country, Blacks and whites who wanted to marry have a second-class citizenship in this country. It’s about time we create first-class citizenship for every American, plain and simple. Every New Jerseyan. This should not be a popular vote. This is something we should do now.

Washington’s marriage equality bill got its first public hearings in House and Senate committees on Monday. Faith leaders both Jewish and Christian came forward to testify in support of the bill. Their message to the legislature was clear: stop discriminating against our right to solumnize marriages for gay and lesbian couples. Civil marriage laws should facilitate free religious expression, not hinder it based on one sect’s beliefs.

Below the fold are 1-minute excerpts from testimony offered on Monday by several of the religious leaders speaking in support of the marriage equality bill. But first, here is how Rabbi Jonathan Singer of Seattle’s Temple Beth Am summed it up at a press conference after the morning committee hearing:

I came here today to support this bill because I think it’s a vote not only for civil rights but for religious equality in our country. In our synagogues in the Reform Movement, we want to be able to perform gay and lesbian weddings and not have the state prevent us from doing that which we think is religiously correct. We don’t want one religious perspective in the country to be the state’s perspective, but to let each house of worship follow the freedom of its conscience.

[More below the fold]

If Frank marries before he leaves office, the longest-serving out gay member of Congress will be the first to be in a same-sex marriage.

Congratulations are in order as the senior out elected official on the Hill, Rep. Barney Frank (MA-D), is going to marry his long-time partner, 42 years-old Jim Ready.

Harry Gural, spokesman in Frank’s press office, added that Ready is a photographer who also owns a small business doing custom awnings, carpentry, painting, welding and other general handyman services. (The Washington Blade):

“We are thrilled for Barney and Jim, and offer them both our congratulations and best wishes,” Wolfe said. ”As one of the world’s most visible out elected officials, Barney Frank has long used his position and influence to draw attention to the freedoms LGBT Americans deserve but still do not enjoy. It’s fitting that as his time in Congress comes to a close, he will finally take advantage of the freedom to marry in his home state of Massachusetts.”

The 71-year-old Frank came out of the closet in 1987. Chuck Wolfe of The Victory Fund added:

We are thrilled for Barney and Jim, and offer them both our congratulations and best wishes,” said Chuck Wolfe, president and CEO of the Victory Fund.  ”As one of the world’s most visible out elected officials, Barney Frank has long used his position and influence to draw attention to the freedoms LGBT Americans deserve but still do not enjoy.  It’s fitting that as his time in Congress comes to a close, he will finally take advantage of the freedom to marry in his home state of Massachusetts.”