Jersey is my home state and Newark my original hometown, so I was more than intrigued by this post by Craig Schoonmaker over at Newark USA. Craig is writing in response to my oped with Gary Gates in last Sunday’s Daily News on how New Jersey’s recent court decision on gay unions could tip the scales in the state’s favor. Schoonmaker, creator of the term "gay pride" is a transplant from Manhattan to Newark.
"Manhattan has long atracted gay men from all over the world. I
myself left New Jersey for Manhattan in 1965, and stayed there for 35
years until the crammed-jammed, frazzled existence of that overcrowded
and increasingly expensive island propelled me back to New Jersey,
where I have SPACE and TREES and FLOWERS in a semi-suburban part of Newark a half hour car ride from the Village. Now, in addition to the push of overcrowding and high expenses of all kinds in Manhattan, New Jersey could also benefit from the pull of a society even more tolerant than New York, where they can actually marry
and enjoy the economic security of being able to pool their resources
to buy a house…"
