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For Asbury Park residents Daniel Weiss [shown above, at right] and John Grant [left], same-sex marriage rights are not just a matter of politics — they are a matter of life and death.

The Asbury Park residents were married in Connecticut in 2010, and served as the lead plaintiffs in Lambda Legal’s lawsuit that argued barring same-sex couples from the rights afforded to opposite-sex couples was unconstitutional after the Supreme Court awarded federal benefits and rights when it struck down the Defense of Marriage Act in June, according to the Lambda Legal website.

Lambda Legal is a national nonprofit legal organization that specializes in LGBT civil rights. They teamed up with Garden State Equality, who launched their same-sex marriage campaign on the Asbury Park boardwalk in July, and initiated the New Jersey case.

A Mercer County Superior Court judge ruled Friday that same-sex couples in New Jersey “must be allowed to marry in order to obtain equal protection of the law under the New Jersey Constitution,” according to court documents.

Judge Mary Jacobson’s ruling allows same-sex couples the right to marry starting Oct. 21.

“Obviously we are thrilled. It’s been a very long time coming for us, and especially for the LGBT community throughout the state,” Weiss said. “There is a reason John and I are the lead plaintiffs.”

Their case illistrates “very clearly, in our worst nightmare” why same sex married couples should be recognized as having the same rights as opposite-sex married couples, he said.

In October of 2010, Grant suffered severe head injuries when was hit by a car in New York. He required emergency cranial surgery to stop his brain from hemorrhaging,  but hospital officials failed to recognize their civil union.

Weiss had to call Grant’s closest next-of-kin, his sister, who lived in Delaware. He was forced to wait four hours for Grant’s sister to arrive in New York, “the bastion of liberalism,” to sign the papers for the treatment, he said.

“It was a horrible evening that was made worse and exacerbated,” he said. To add further insult to injury, Weiss spent the next few months battling insurance companies over coverage.

Weiss fully expects Governor Christopher Christie to appeal the decision, but hopes the governor would “give the court some respect it is due as a legal branch of government, and not appeal it,” he said.

“If he truly is concerned about people’s lives, he won’t appeal this,” Weiss said.

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