New gay marriage ad campaign launched under lame duck watch

In the first ad, Middlesex County couple Louise and Marsha have raised a family in the 20 years they've been together -- including two children with mental and physical disabilities. As one of their children was dying, the women were unable to secure equal health benefits from prospective employers, despite having a civil union. The couple wound up losing their son and having hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt

"We’ve raised four children and in circumstances where most people would have separated or divorced," Louise says in the ad. "I don’t know what a marriage is if it’s not what we have, and I want that legal recognition.”

"Emilia" portrays a woman whose husband died in a New Jersey hospital, the same facility where a civil union couple was treated differently.

Steven Goldstein, chair of Garden State Equality, said the ads could appear on other television stations during the group's effort to get gay marriage legislation passed this year.

"It may well expand, you'll have to watch," he said.

Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine, who supports gay marriage, lost his re-election bid Tuesday to Republican Chris Christie, who opposes it.

The group will be holding meetings to garner support tonight and Thursday in Jersey City, Madison, Montclair, Maplewood, Newark, Ridgewood Park, Collingswood, Hillsborough, New Brunswick and Westfield. For details, visitwww.GardenStateEquality.org.