"Not only do their different backgrounds and career paths bring distinctive and important perspectives to the court, Bruce and Phil also capture the state's diversity," he said.
Neither has previously served as a judge. Their confirmations would leave the court without a justice from South Jersey.
Harris, 61, would be the third African American justice to serve on the court and the nation's seventh openly gay state justice. He was accompanied at Monday's news conference by his longtime partner, Marc Boisclair.
"This is an important moment in our state's history and in our country's history and signals just how far we have come," the Republican governor said.
The announcement came a day before the Democratic Legislature was to begin hearings on a bill that would allow same-sex marriage. Christie has expressed opposition to same-sex marriage in the past, and strongly indicated Monday that he would veto such a measure.
"I'm not somebody who changes positions with the grace of a ballerina, so I wouldn't be all atwitter in expectation," he said.
Christie has expressed his intention to remake the court, whose justices he has blasted for their mandates on affordable housing and state funding for poor school districts.
He said he did not ask the nominees about specific cases but inquired about their experiences in the courtroom and legal philosophies.
Democrats and the NAACP had pressured Christie to appoint minorities to what had become an all-white court.
In 2010, for the first time in the history of the modern court, Christie denied tenure to a Supreme Court justice, John Wallace, who is African American and a friend of Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D., Gloucester).
