On the boardwalk in Asbury Park this morning, Garden State Equality endorsed Dem gubernatorial candidate Phil Murphy.  Kivvit’s Chris Donnelly, a GSE board member, introduced Executive Director Christian Fuscarino.

“It’s speak a lot about someone’s character when you have a history of standing up for people even when it doesn’t affect you.  That’s the type of person Phil Murphy is.  When we asked Phil to sit down with our community, he didn’t ask why, he asked where and when,” said Fuscarino.  “So I’m asking all of you to stand with Garden State Equality and for the first time in our history, we will have a true ally in the Governor’s Office,” as he introduced Murphy.

“I’m incredibly honored to be photographed at the beach with so many others,” joked Murphy, taking a jab at a beach-chaired Christie during the shutdown.  “Every little step matters. And until we take all those steps, too many of us will suffer,” mentioning a list of LGBT priorities, including birth and death certificates, homelessness, military service, business support, and insurance coverage.  “Your gala, the only regret I had is I had to leave and go somewhere else.  It was the most substantative night I’ve spent probably on the campaign trail.  The notion of homelessness really struck me that night.”

In mid-May, both gubernatorial candidates Murphy and Kim Guadagno attended GSE’s annual gala along with a who’s who of statewide political players and elected officials, including many Republicans.  At the event, Fuscarino told Insider NJ, “I think no matter who is elected the next governor, Garden State Equality for the first time is going to have a true ally in the governor’s office,” he said.

Murphy bemoaned the fact that right now, as they see it, GSE doesn’t have a Governor aligned with the group’s priorities but that he will be, and took a shot at President Trump, saying “we have to face the reality that we have a flat-out hostile president and administration in Washington, so we’re all going to have to band together.”

He expanded that to Republicans in general: “There’s a whole lot of blame we can blame on Donald Trump, and believe me we will, because he deserves it.  But its too simplistic to stop at him.  This is bigger than just this guy.  This is a whole ideology by a wing of their party – by the majority of their party- that does not see America the way we see it.”

He promised a ‘steel backbone’ to going up against President Trump, saying “we need leadership with a steel backbone, leadership that will appoint an Attorney General who sees things the same way we see them, but also has that same steel backbone that says ‘Mr. President, with all do respect, you will not do that in the great state of New Jersey.”