The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that same-sex couples are entitled to the same rights as married heterosexuals and left it to the legislature to decide on the name to be given to such unions.

“The court does not consider whether committed same-sex couples should be allowed to marry, but only whether those couples are entitled to the same rights and benefits afforded to married heterosexual couples,” the justices wrote in their decision, reports Reuters.

Massachusetts is the only state in the U.S. that recognizes marriages between people of the same sex. Fifteen states have passed constitutional amendments banning such unions. New Jersey is one of only five states with no such statutory or constitutional ban.

“The issue is not about the transformation of the traditional definition of marriage, but about the unequal dispensation of benefits and privileges to one of two similarly situated classes of people,” the court said in its 4-3 ruling, reports the Associated Press.

According to Reuters, the state high court in Trenton was ruling on claims by seven same-sex couples seeking to wed. The suit, filed in 2002, reached the court last year after a lower appeals court ruled 2-1 that gay marriage isn't recognized under the New Jersey constitution.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in 2003 that a ban on same-sex marriage violated the state constitution. The following year, the same court ruled that only full marriage rights for gay couples would satisfy constitutional requirements. The state doesn't extend marriage rights to same-sex couples living outside the state.

Chief Justice Deborah Poritz, who is retiring from the New Jersey court today, dissented from the majority, saying that gay couples have the "fundamental right to participate in a state- sanctioned civil marriage,” reports Reuters.

State lawmakers in New Jersey passed a domestic partnership law in 2004 that grants gay couples some of the same rights available to married couples, including pension and health coverage for partners of state employees. Until the Massachusetts court's ruling, only Vermont extended similar benefits to same-sex couples.

Until next time!