California's Domestic Partner Rights and Responsibilities Act of 2003

[achtungbaby]

Anyone care to give me either your take on this or...whatever info ya got?!?

Sorry, I'm doing research right now and I'm beginning to feel like I have a mountain of work ahead of me.

[kitty]

at cornell... domestic partners are gay/straight partners who've lived with you for at least a year, i think. I thought it was cool because technically i coulda claimed my boyfriend as a domestic partner and covered him under my health and dental plans. :)

[>:^|]

Isn't somebody trying to get this on the ballot for repeal?

My take on domestic partnerships generally: While enacting legislation in this area is a step in the right direction, it is not the equivalent of marriage. This is because the rights of marriage are covered by hundreds (maybe thousands) of laws, rules, regulations, statutes, policies, etc. Domestic partnership laws typically give extremely limited benefits that don't come close to the rights granted under the status of marriage.

What in particular are you looking for?

[rice cracker]

I remember seeing something about how domestic partners can have a say in their partners living will. Like, if your partner is on life support and you KNOW he doesn't want to be a vegetable and would want you to take him off, yet his family wants him kept on, you can override the family. Also, I think that a domestic partner can inherit from their deceased partner. Might have to look into that one. Common-law marriages aren't recognized in MN, though, so that's about all the information I have.

[cmar]

Here are some web sites with good information about the California domestic partner law:

www.marriageequalityca.org

www.lambdalegal.org

www.eqca.org