LGBTQ Nation

The domestic partnership benefits of hundreds of Wisconsin gay couples could be overturned in what’s becoming a growing legal battle.

Currently, gay couples in Wisconsin can register for domestic partnerships rights, enacted through legislation that took effect August 3. Since then, about 1,000 couples have applied, according to gay rights advocacy group Fair Wisconsin. Now, those domestic partnerships are in jeopardy.

Family advocacy group Wisconsin Family Action has filed a lawsuit to overturn domestic partnerships, calling them unconstitutional. In 2006, the voters passed an amendment barring gay marriage or anything substantially similar to gay marriage.

Gay rights advocates Lambda Legal filed their own legal challenge on behalf of Fair Wisconsin on Tuesday. They argue the voters may have rejected gay marriage, but they did not reject gay rights.

Fair Wisconsin executive director Katie Belanger says the group is intervening “so that we can protect the interests of our members.”

The American Civil Liberties Union also filed a motion before the Wisconsin Supreme Court Tuesday on behalf of five same-sex couples asking that the couples be allowed to participate in the challenge that will determine the domestic partner law’s future.

Anti-gay activists have asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to strike down the domestic partner law as inconsistent with the marriage amendment.

Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said Friday that he refuses to defend a new law that grants gay and lesbian couples spousal benefits such as hospital visitation, claiming lawmakers went against voters’ decision not to extend such privileges.

Van Hollen believes the state’s new domestic partnership law, which took effect August 3, is unconstitutional. It allows gay and lesbian partners dozens of the same legal protections as married spouses. To date, more than 400 couples have been added to the state registry.

The conservative Wisconsin Family Council asked the state Supreme Court last month to invalidate the law, saying it conflicted with a voter-approved 2006 constitutional amendment that bans same-sex marriage and any “substantially similar” relationships. The Supreme Court has not yet decided if it will take up the case. If it does, the state would likely have to hire an outside attorney to defend the law.

Gov. James E. Doyle, a Democrat, responded, “The attorney general’s job is to represent the state and defend state law when there is a good-faith defense to be made. His representation should not be based on whether he likes the state law.”

Van Hollen is a registered Republican.

More than 440 same sex couple applied for Wisconsin’s domestic partnership registry in its first week.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health Services cautions the numbers are incomplete because only 58 out of 72 counties responded to the department’s request for numbers. Dane County had the most with 115 couples.

Applicants need to sign a document in front of a notary and file it with the register of deeds to become official. The registry gives same-sex couples dozens of the same benefits as married couples, such as hospital visitation, medical leave and inheritance rights.