Source: Associated Press via Seattle Times
OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Registered domestic partners in Washington gain dozens of new rights and responsibilities at midnight Thursday, when the bulk of the more than 320 measures lawmakers passed this year kick in.
Domestic partners registered with the state will get more than 170 of the rights and responsibilities of marriage. It's another step toward what supporters hope will eventually be full recognition of same-sex unions in the state.
"It's an exciting step forward," Josh Friedes, advocacy director of the gay-rights group Equal Rights Washington, told Associated Press. "This new law provides a significant basket of new rights, nevertheless, the safety net for our families remain inadequate."
But ERW points out that even with the new laws, lesbian and gay couples in the state are still not given full marriage rights.
"Registered domestic partnerships do not equal marriage," ERW notes in a guide to the new law available in PDF format. "More rights and important duties for domestic partners very likely will be added by new laws," the group says, "but true equality requires marriage equality."
The advocacy group urges LGBT people and supporters, "Get involved and help end anti-gay discrimination in marriage!"
The underlying domestic-partnership law, passed last year, provides hospital-visitation rights, the ability to authorize to get medical information for a partner and to authorize autopsies and organ donations. It also grants inheritance rights when there is no will.
The enhanced 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 equalizes several state tax laws, including making domestic partners subject to the state's community property laws.
The new measures 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.
The registration process hasn't changed.
To obtain a partnership certificate, both partners must sign a “Declaration of State Registered Domestic Partnership” form, have their signatures notarized, and mail or deliver the form with the filing fee to the Office of the Secretary of State.
The declaration form is available from the Secretary of State’s office in Olympia and website, and from county clerks' offices. Online registration is likely to be available soon, according to a guide available from ERW in PDF form.
The new law also changes the process of ending a domestic partnership, making it more like conventional divorces.
Partnerships can be ended by the secretary of state 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.
"It's a more serious commitment than the previous statute was," Julie Shapiro, a law professor at Seattle University, told Associated Press. "People ought to think a little harder before they register, just as people ought to think a littler harder before they marry."
Unmarried heterosexual senior couples also are eligible for domestic partnerships if one partner is at least 62. The provision was included to help seniors who are at risk of losing pension rights and Social Security benefits if they remarry.
Full article: Domestic partnerships benefit from new laws| Seattle Times (AP)