TRENTON, N.J. (AP) – A panel created to study New Jersey’s civil unions law heard from several same-sex couples Wednesday who say the law fails to provide marriage equality as required.

The Civil Union Review Commission also heard testimony from gay rights experts in Vermont, which has a civil unions law similar to but older than New Jersey’s, and Massachusetts’, the only state that gives same-sex couples the right to marry.

Garden State Equality, the state’s leading gay rights group, presented “a mountain of new evidence showing the failure of New Jersey’s civil union law to provide equality as real marriage would,” said its chair, Steven Goldstein, who also sits on the review panel.

New Jersey adopted its civil unions law in December, after the state Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional to deny same-sex couples access to marriage protections. The law went into effect in April.

As of Aug. 15, 1,514 same-sex couples applied to form civil unions in New Jersey. Garden State Equality says it has received complaints from 304 couples about how employers and insurers refused to recognize civil unions. Thirty of the couples have co-signed a letter to the governor and legislative leaders describing financial and emotional damage caused by the shortcomings in the civil unions law.

The civil union legislation also created the special commission that was holding the first of three public hearings Wednesday. The panel is to report its findings annually to the governor and the Legislature.

Len Deo, president of the New Jersey Family Policy Council, which opposes same-sex marriage, said last week that the review commission isn’t aiming for an unbiased report. He said the commission was created “to turn civil unions to full-fledged marriage.”

Deo said the argument that the rights of same-sex couples are not fully recognized under civil unions is faulty. He pointed to United Parcel Service, which at first denied benefits to New Jersey couples with civil unions but after reviewing the law reversed course.

Deo’s group is pushing for an amendment to the state Constitution that would specifically ban same-sex marriage.