Gays and Lesbians get legal boost

[MYSONSDAD]

Same-Sex Couples Receive Legal Boost
Calif. Enhances Their Rights, Duties

By Lisa Leff
Associated Press
Sunday, January 2, 2005; Page A05

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 1 -- Like many gay couples, Brian Cornell and Alberto Rulloda long ago established a legal framework for their relationship to match their commitment to each other. They drew up wills naming the other as beneficiary, property agreements and powers of attorney, among other documents. The couple of 27 years wanted to spell out the specifics that would have been presumed if they were married.

Starting Saturday, such improvised arrangements will be less necessary for them and nearly 29,000 other California couples -- the majority of them same-sex partners. A law taking effect with the new year gives gay couples who register as domestic partners nearly the same responsibilities and benefits as married spouses. Heterosexual elderly couples also are eligible.


 
A California law gives domestic partners such as Brian Cornell, left, and Alberto Rulloda in Oakland many of the same rights as married spouses. (Ben Margot -- AP)  

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Same-sex couples in California for the first time will have access to divorce court for dividing their assets, seeking alimony and securing child support. They also will have automatic parental status over children born during the relationship and responsibility for each other's debts.

It guarantees domestic partners a say over what happens to their loved one's remains at death and means they cannot be forced to testify against each other in state courts.

"It won't be as good as marriage because we are talking about a thousand-plus federal benefits that won't be covered," Cornell said. "But a start's a start, progress is progress."

Many gay rights advocates say the domestic partner law heralds a new era of legal recognition and participation for gay men and lesbians. They hope that is particularly true for those raising children or without the money to pay lawyers to prepare the previously recommended paperwork.

One indication of the growing acceptance comes from the California Department of Health Services, which is updating its birth certificates to replace the lines for "mother" and "father" with the gender-neutral "parent" and "parent." Until now, hospitals have altered the forms by hand, and couples have needed a court order for the changes to be approved.

Two groups opposed to marriage rights for same-sex couples have challenged the law, saying it violates the intent of a 2000 ballot initiative approved by voters that holds only unions between a man and a woman are valid in the state. The California Court of Appeal has agreed to hear the case early in the year.

"Whether you call it 'domestic partnerships' or 'civil unions,' homosexual 'marriage' by another name is still homosexual 'marriage,' and the people of California voted against that," said Randy Thomasson, executive director of Campaign for California Families, one of the groups that brought the lawsuit.

Linton Johnson, 31, and Jeff Winkler, 30, already share a bank account, ownership interests in two houses and a romance that goes back six years. The extra responsibilities of domestic partnership, such as obligation for each other's debts, are not a burden for the Oakland residents.

"It helps legitimize our relationship to others," Johnson said. "And in that regard, if you get treated differently, you sort of feel like family with the rest of the world, and that can bring you closer together."



http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41302-2005Jan1.html?sub=new

"Children learn what they live"

[cathy]

I just wish it went even further.

Ya know - I look at all the hate in this world and wonder why in the world anyone would put down love in whatever form it took.  The couple in the article has been together 27 years!  I know lots of heterosexual couples that didn't last anywhere near that long!

And I think it is good that the partners are being looked at as parents.  Many homosexual couples are having children and these children see these 2 people as their parents.  If the couple splits, it is just as bad to deny one of these parents access and rights to the child as it is in a heterosexual divorce.