Domestic Partnerships

Gov. Ted Kulongoski signed legislation creating domestic partnerships for gays and lesbians in the state starting Jan. 1. He also signed a bill that outlaws discrimination based on sexual orientation, effective the same date. Kulongoski, a strong backer of both measures, said they would "transform our state from one of exclusion to one of complete inclusion."

Voters in North Carolina on Tuesday approved Amendment One, a fiercely debated and highly restrictive amendment to the state constitution that defines marriage as the legal union of a man and a woman. The amendment not only outlaws same-sex marriage - already illegal in the state - but bans civil unions and domestic partnerships for gay or straight couples. Family law experts say it will threaten domestic partnership health benefits for local government workers and strip unmarried couples, both gay and straight, of their rights to make financial or emergency medical decisions for an incapacitated partner.

After two hours of polite but sharply polarized debate, the Long Beach City Council on Tuesday ducked a vote on a proposal that would have allowed unmarried couples to register as domestic partners. Instead of deciding the issue, the council voted 7 to 2 to ask the city's Human Relations Commission for advice on whether to extend jail and hospital visitation rights to gay and other unwed couples.

Mara Schmid and her partner have been together for about two years. With same-sex marriage still up in the air in California, the couple recently decided to take a look at registering their relationship as a domestic partnership. Under state law, registered domestic partners have "the same rights, protections and benefits" as married couples. After downloading the necessary form from the secretary of state's website, they discovered that the filing fee is $10 but that same-sex partners have to pony up an extra $23, bringing their total to $33. By law, straight couples registering a domestic partnership face no such additional fee. What's up with that?

A Senate committee has approved a bill to allow gay and other unmarried couples to officially register their relationships with the state and share rights now enjoyed by married couples. A 7-3 vote sent the legislation (AB 2810) by Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) from the Judiciary Committee to the Appropriations Committee.

Opponents of Long Beach's same-sex domestic partnership ordinance kicked off a campaign Friday to put a measure on the ballot that would overturn the ordinance. "Domestic partnership sends the wrong message to our youth," said Pastor Garon Harden, president of the Long Beach Ministers Assn. "We want voters to decide this issue." The initiative will need 19,000 signatures to get on next April's ballot.

A controversial ordinance recognizing domestic partnerships between homosexuals and other unmarried couples was stopped from going into effect Thursday by the demand of a conservative opposition group for a public vote on the issue. A minister and a rabbi representing the group submitted a petition at midday bearing what they said were more than the required 18,800 signatures needed to place the fate of the ordinance on the November ballot.

Ron Garber knew his former wife was living with another woman -- and had taken her last name -- when he agreed to pay her $1,250 a month in alimony. What he didn't know was that the two women had registered with the state as domestic partners under a law that was supposed to mirror marriage law, Garber said. State marriage laws say that alimony ends when the former spouse remarries, and Garber reasons he should be off the hook, given that domestic partnership is akin to marriage.

In a clear expression of backlash against the nation's first same-sex domestic partnership law, five incumbent Republicans who supported Vermont's civil union legislation were defeated Tuesday in that state's primary. The five were among nine legislative candidates targeted by conservative political and religious groups specifically for their support of a measure that legalizes gay marriage in everything but the name.

Businesses that provide discounts, special services or other privileges to married couples must extend the same rights and benefits to same-sex couples registered as state domestic partners, the California Supreme Court decided 6-0 on Monday. The ruling will affect a broad range of businesses, including banks and mortgage lenders, auto insurers and health clubs.

Jean Harris, a feisty advocate for gay and lesbian rights and longtime Democratic Party activist who helped elect openly gay candidates in California, has died. She was 66. Harris, who had a number of serious health problems, was found June 25 in her Palm Springs home by her partner, Denise Penn. An autopsy to determine the cause of death is underway. An Orange County native, Harris played a key role in mobilizing support for the so-called lavender sweep of 1990, when San Francisco voters elected two lesbian supervisors and a gay school board member.

Social conservatives can usually count Justice Antonin Scalia as a faithful ally on the Supreme Court. But Wednesday, Scalia had only sarcasm for opponents of Washington state's domestic partner law, who wanted to overturn the law through a referendum without having their names made public. "Oh, this is such a touchy-feely, oh so sensitive" point of view, Scalia said. "You know, you can't run a democracy this way, with everybody being afraid of having his political positions known."

A federal trial on same-sex marriage focused Wednesday on the similarities and differences between homosexual and heterosexual couples, with a psychology professor citing "remarkable similarities." Letitia Peplau, an expert on couple relationships, testified that studies have found that the quality of heterosexual and homosexual relationships was on average "the same" as measured by closeness, love and stability. "On average, same-sex couples and heterosexual couples are indistinguishable," said Peplau, a UCLA professor of social psychology called by attorneys for two same-sex couples who are trying to overturn Proposition 8, the 2008 voter initiative that reinstated a state ban on same-sex marriage.

Not even Stieg Larsson could've dreamed up "The Girl Who Fought for a Share of the Inheritance." But five years after his untimely death and millions of book sales later, the Swedish crime writer's estate is caught in a bitter feud worthy of one of his thrillers, complete with a strong-willed female protagonist, a murky bog of possible villains and a plot that has transfixed this Scandinavian country. It's a saga of love, literature and the law. Of blood versus bond, pitting Larsson's relatives against his lifelong companion for control of a posthumous publishing juggernaut that shows no sign of slowing.

Ben Cartwright has been a passionate advocate for gay rights for 12 years. He is a regular at gay pride marches, has a pod-cast and writes for a gay newspaper in San Diego. The last thing he expected was to have to put a part of himself back into the closet. But if the military were to find out about his love for a sailor, a man with years of honorable service would face a dishonorable discharge.

Don Atkins shared his life with Ted Horzella for 37 years. For the last three years of Horzella's life, the men were registered with the state of California as domestic partners. But when Horzella died in 2005 at the age of 76, Atkins was shocked to learn his annual property tax bill would rise from $1,400 to $10,400. He paid an attorney $6,700 to fight his assessment and Los Angeles County an additional $20,000 in taxes.

In the first ritual of its kind, 165 gay and lesbian couples were symbolically joined in official bliss at San Francisco's temporary City Hall on Monday in a festive but dignified mass ceremony presided over by Mayor Willie Brown. Walking down the aisle in everything from blue jeans to wedding dresses, 10 to 20 couples at a time took a vow of partnership given by city officials, then kissed in unison as friends and family members cheered.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will soon announce that gay American diplomats will be given benefits similar to those of their heterosexual counterparts, U.S. officials said Saturday. In a notice to be sent soon to State Department employees, Clinton said regulations that denied same-sex couples and their families the same rights and privileges of straight diplomats were "unfair and must end," because they harm U.S. diplomacy.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Teresa Sanchez-Gordon has dismissed a lawsuit brought against Tim Burton by his ex-girlfriend over whether the acclaimed director owes her more of his earnings. Lisa Marie sued Burton in December 2006. She claimed she was cheated out of money that Burton had promised her during their relationship. The judge's ruling noted that Marie and Burton signed agreements around the time they went their separate ways in 2001 that provided her with at least $5.5 million, rights to a New York co-op apartment and a Jaguar coupe.