A New Jersey judge says the lawsuit seeking to have the state recognize gay marriage can go forward.

Superior Court Judge Linda Feinberg rejected the state’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit. She says gay couples have the right to argue the state’s civil union law does not give them the same rights and protections as married couples.

Butler resident Cindy Meneghin is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

“Everybody in this state, everybody in this country, everybody in this world, when you say you’re married they know exactly what that means. Not just socially but economically, politically. They know exactly what rights. They exactly how to define you and we need that definition to get the right and the protections.”

Another plaintiff, Asbury Park resident Daniel Weiss, is pleased the lawsuit is moving ahead.

“Hopefully this will be the end of a failed experiment that’s cruel. Hopefully no other people will have to endure what my partner John and I have had to endure as a result of being called something much less than marriage.”

The case will now have to work its way through the courts.