[Vision2020] New Law Expands Partner Rights

[Tom Hansen]

Let me preface this article with special thanks to Mayor Chaney and the 
four city council members who voted in favor of providing health care 
benefits to domestic partners of city employees.

Keep up the good fight, guys.

http://www.moscowcares.com/Emp_Hlth_Benefits_030308.htm

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>From today's (March 13, 2008) Spokesman Review -

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New law expands partner rights 
Same-sex couples gain 170 benefits, responsibilities of spouses
Rachel La Corte 
Associated Press
March 13, 2008

OLYMPIA – Domestic partners will be granted more than 170 of the benefits 
and responsibilities given to married couples under a measure signed into 
law Wednesday by Gov. Chris Gregoire.

The measure adds domestic partners to sections of laws where previously 
only spouses were mentioned, including areas referring to probate and 
trusts, community property and homestead exemptions, and guardianship and 
powers of attorney.

"This bill is about protecting and helping Washington families," Gregoire 
said before signing the bill. "It simply gives these families the same 
rights as everybody else. It's the right thing to do."

The law will take effect June 12.

The underlying domestic partnership law, passed last year, already 
provides hospital visitation rights, the ability to authorize autopsies 
and organ donations and inheritance rights when there is no will.

More than 3,500 couples have registered as domestic partners since the law 
took effect last year.

The measure makes dozens of changes to state law, including requiring 
domestic partners of public officials to submit financial disclosure 
forms, just as the spouses of heterosexual officials do.

It also would give domestic partners the same spousal testimony rights 
that married couples have, allowing domestic partners the right to refuse 
to testify against each other in court.

"Domestic partners still lack the vast majority of the protections that 
married couples take for granted in Washington state," said Rep. Jamie 
Pedersen, D-Seattle and sponsor of the measure. He said the new law is 
the "next step in addressing that injustice."

Under the measure, the process of ending a domestic partnership also would 
be changed, allowing the secretary of state to end partnerships only in 
the first five years, with several more restrictions relating to children, 
real property or unpaid debts.

All other partnerships would be dissolved in superior court – similar to 
conventional divorce.

To be registered as partners, couples must share a home, must not be 
married or in a domestic relationship with someone else, and be at least 
18.

In a provision similar to California law, unmarried heterosexual senior 
couples also are eligible for domestic partnerships if one partner is at 
least 62. Lawmakers said that provision was included to help seniors who 
are at risk of losing pension rights and Social Security benefits if they 
remarry.

Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, who sponsored the original domestic partnership 
measure last year, said that the expansion of rights was "a sign of hope 
to gay and lesbian families across this state that one day we will receive 
the full recognition that our relationships deserve."

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"People who ridicule others while hiding behind anonymous monikers in chat-
room forums are neither brave nor clever." 

- Latah County Sheriff Wayne Rausch (August 21,
2007)

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