Domestic Partnerships >= Marriage?
Well, just equal. But you get rid of all that crazy religious guilt and saving yourself for marriage. And you still get to have the party!
Right now the Domestic Partnerships we have in Washington are a start, but they provide a small fraction of the benefits that true marriage provides.
HB 1727 intends to change that. The 110 page bill will provide all rights that marriage provides to state-sponsored Domestic Partnerships. The bill is accompanied by Senate Bill 5688, which would do the same thing.
The bill digest reads:
“Declares that for all purposes under state law, state registered domestic partners shall be treated the same as married spouses. Any privilege, immunity, right, benefit, or responsibility granted or imposed by statute, administrative or court rule, policy, common law or any other law to an individual because the individual is or was a spouse, or because the individual is or was an in-law in a specified way to another individual, is granted on equivalent terms, substantive and procedural, to an individual because the individual is or was in a state registered domestic partnership or because the individual is or was, based on a state registered domestic partnership, related in a specified way to another individual. Provides that the act shall be liberally construed to achieve equal treatment, to the extent not in conflict with federal law, of state registered domestic partners and married spouses.”
Anyone wishing to either listen in on the hearing, or give testimony should attend the public hearing Thursday, February 5th at 10 AM (the house bill) or 3:30 PM (senate version) in Olympia, Washington.
Tags: Marriage, Queer, Washington