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Domestic Partnerships

In many jurisdictions worldwide, legal recognition has been extended to gay couples that falls short of marriage and marriage-like 'civil unions.' Typically, this lesser form of recognition is termed 'domestic partnerships.'

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Gay couples sue Alaska over unequal property taxes

KTVA-TV (Anchorage), Posted: 8/4/2010, 8:26 AM
Three same-sex couples are suing the State of Alaska and the Municipality of Anchorage, saying property tax laws discriminate against gay and lesbian couples. 67-year-old Julie Schmidt and 62-year-old Gayle Schuh say the state is denying them the right to be eligible for the $150,000 property tax exemption given to married senior citizens. "It's disturbing to realize that just because we are a same sex couple that we are not afforded the same benefits as everyone else," says Schuh. Although folks involved in this case are primarily pushing to be eligible for the property tax exemption, they also say they are fighting for fairness for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities. "We're trying to fight for it, trying to do something about it and make it better for all of the couples that might be in our situation," Schmidt. Even though it's against Alaska state law for same-sex couples to get married, the Alaska Supreme Court has ruled that not offering the same benefits to same-sex couples is against the state's constitution. "Julie and Gale cannot get married. They are forbidden by the Alaska Constitution. So, what the Supreme Court has said is because of that, it is an equal protection violation to treat them differently and deny them this $150,000 dollar exemption." Says Jeffrey Mittman Attorney for American Civil Liberties Union Of Alaska. ACLU attorneys say state tax assessors have to follow the rules of the Department of Law, but for Schmidt and Schuh this is a fight for fairness.

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Seven gay couples sue Montana over DP protection

Dallas Voice, Posted: 7/23/2010, 9:48 AM
The ACLU of Montana may have found a way to force states that have outlawed same-sex marriage to provide rights to gay and lesbian couples. Although a decision has not been reached in the Prop 8 trial in California, the defense’s inability to produce any evidence or credible witnesses in that case may have emboldened the ACLU to sue on behalf of seven Montana couples. The couples in the Montana suit aren’t pursuing the right to marry. They simply want the state to provide their families with the same protections opposite-sex couples enjoy. The lawsuit claims Montana violates its own state constitutional guarantees of rights like privacy, equal protection and due process. The suit seeks equal rights through domestic partnerships: "By this suit, Plaintiffs do not seek the opportunity to marry nor do they seek the designation of 'marriage' for their relationships. … Plaintiffs simply seek the same opportunity to obtain the statutory protections and obligations that are offered by the State to different-sex couples and their families through the legal status of marriage."

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Minn. GOP gov. vetoes 'final wishes' burial rights bill

Politics in Minnesota, Posted: 5/28/2010, 4:47 PM
Gov. Tim Pawlenty took time out of his northern Minnesota fishing excursion to veto three bills, including the so-called Final Wishes bill that gives same-sex couples burial and other rights. Fourteen bills were driven on Friday night to the Lake Kabetogama area, where Pawlenty was camped out for today’s walleye/northern pike season opener. The Final Wishes bill, sponsored by Sen. Yvonne Prettner Solon, DFL-Duluth, and Rep. Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, gives domestic partners the right to oversee the last wishes of their deceased partner. The bill also gives the partner standing to sue in a wrongful death case to recover funeral and medical expenses. The bill drew criticism as an attempt to define domestic partner in state law. The bill passed the Senate 41-24 and the House 78-55. Pawlenty, through a spokesman, signaled earlier this week he would veto Final Wishes. Pawlenty contended that the same-sex partners can create legal documents that specify who can act on their behalf when they die. Prettner Solon said, however, not all directives are “fail safe.”

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Nearly half of U.S. lives where there's gay couple recognition

Box Turtle Bulletin, Posted: 3/4/2010, 3:23 PM
Nearly half of all Americans live where there is at least some form of relationship recognition for same-sex couples, an analysis of current law shows. Some 140 million Americans – about 46% of the nation’s population – live where there is some form of official notice of same-sex couples. About 5.1% of Americans (15.5 million) live in areas in which same-sex marriages are legal and equal to opposite-sex marriages: Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, New Hampshire, and the District of Columbia. Another 58.4 million (19.2%) live in states which have either civil unions or domestic partnerships that offer all the rights and protections of marriage without the name: California, New Jersey, Oregon, Nevada, and Washington. To that we can add two more states (New York and Maryland) in which the local state government will honor marriage occurring elsewhere and we have a total of 32.6% of Americans living with the rights and responsibilities of marriage available to their family. There are also five states which recognize same-sex couples and offer them limited itemized rights. They are Hawaii, Colorado, Wisconsin, Maine, and Rhode Island and they add an additional 14.2 million Americans (4.7%). But recognition does not stop there. There are dozens more counties and cities who provide what local recognition and benefits as they can, adding another 14.2 million local residents (4.7% of Americans) who can appreciate that their city officials see them as a couple.

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Nevada Senate overrides veto on domestic partners

Associated Press (AP), Posted: 5/31/2009, 7:36 AM
The Nevada Senate has voted to override Gov. Jim Gibbons’s veto of a measure that would give domestic partners, whether gay or straight, many of the rights and benefits that Nevada offers to married couples. The 14-to-7 Senate vote Saturday, the required two-thirds majority with no votes to spare, must be affirmed by the Assembly for the bill to become law over the governor’s objections. The bill provides that domestic partners have the same rights as married couples in matters like community property and responsibility for debts. Critics contend that domestic partners can sign private contracts to accomplish many of the goals of the bill, and that it conflicts with the intent of Nevadans who in 2002 approved a constitutional amendment specifying that marriage can be only between a man and a woman.

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Colo. Republican half-apologize for gay-murder link

Posted: 2/27/2009, 7:30 AM
A Colorado Republican says his choice of words may have been wrong, but he is not backing off from a condemnation of homosexuality as a sin. State Sen. Scott Renfroe has been at the center of storm of controversy after telling the Colorado Senate this week that homosexuality an “offense to God.” “When we create laws that go against biblically what we are supposed to stand for, we are allowing to go forward a sin,” Renfroe said on the Senate floor. “We are taking sins and making them to be legally OK. That is wrong. I’m not saying this is the only sin out there. We have murder. … We don’t make laws making murder legal.” Renfroe delivered the attack during debate on a domestic partner bill that will make it easier for unmarried couples in Colorado, including gays and lesbians, to make medical decision for incapacitated partners and leave property to their partners. Despite Renfroe’s remarks, the measure passed the Senate.

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Lesbian files suit after hospital blocked dying visit

Posted: 2/21/2009, 8:53 AM
As her partner of 17 years slipped into a coma, Janice Langbehn pleaded with doctors and anyone who would listen to let her into the woman's hospital room. Eight anguishing hours passed before Langbehn would be allowed into Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center. By then, she could only say her final farewell as a priest performed the last rites on 39-year-old Lisa Marie Pond. Jackson staffers advised Langbehn that she could not see Pond earlier because the hospital's visitation policy in cases of emergency was limited to immediate family and spouses -- not partners. In Florida, same-sex marriages or partnerships are not recognized. On Friday, two years after her partner's death, Langbehn and her attorneys were in federal court, claiming emotional distress and negligence in a suit they filed last June.

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Domestic partnership bill passes first hurdle in Colo.

Posted: 2/17/2009, 5:41 PM
A bill making it easier for gays and lesbians to leave property to their partners and visit each other in the hospital is closer to approval in the Colorado Legislature. The measure was approved by the House Judiciary Committee Monday and sent to the full House for debate.

It would allow any two unmarried people to sign up to be the other's designated beneficiaries.

One Republican strongly opposed the bill, calling it an attempt to circumvent Colorado voters, who rejected civil unions and defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

Supporters say it would simply allow gay and unmarried couples the same rights married couples have.

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GOP reverses support for Colo. domestic partnerships

Denver Post, Posted: 2/6/2009, 7:44 AM
A bill that would make it easier for unwed couples to plan their estates and share benefits in times of tragedy is certain to touch off a gay-rights debate at the Capitol. Unwed couples can already designate each other as emergency decision makers, ensure that property goes to their partners if they die and list each other as health insurance beneficiaries. But the process for sharing these and other benefits is a costly and complicated series of contracts, said bill sponsor Rep. Mark Ferrandino, D-Denver. In 2006, socially conservative lawmakers like Sen. Shawn Mitchell, R-Broomfield, proposed similar legislation allowing so-called "designated beneficiary agreements." At the time, a ballot battle loomed over Referendum I, an initiative to legalize domestic partnerships and confer spousal rights on committed, same-sex couples. This time around, Mitchell says the fact that the agreements would be open to heterosexual couples amounts to "marriage light or shacking up heavy." Either way, he's opposed, he said.

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New bill includes 'everything but marriage' in Wash.

Seattle Times, Posted: 1/29/2009, 2:09 PM
Lawmakers in Washington state announced a move they hope leads to expansion of the state's domestic partnership law to offer same-sex couples all the rights and benefits given to heterosexual married couples. The 110-page bill makes changes to all remaining areas of state law where currently only married couples are addressed. The bill would add same-sex domestic partners to state statutes ranging from labor and employment to pensions and other public employee benefits. "I would say the most remarkable thing about this bill is that it is unremarkable," said Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle. "Instead of the cultural wars that we have seen year after year, we see a Legislature that is mostly on board in moving forward on protecting all of Washington's families." Murray, who sponsored the state's domestic partnership law in 2007, is sponsoring the expansion bill in the Senate this year; Rep. Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle, is sponsoring the measure in the House. They are two of six openly gay lawmakers in the Legislature.

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