Domestic Partners

Washington state’s Referendum 71, which will give voters a chance to overturn the new “everything but marriage” same-sex domestic partnership law, has moved a step closer to being on the November ballot. The secretary of state’s office ruled Monday that the referendum had 121,486 valid voter signatures, nearly a thousand more than needed to make […]

The names and addresses of donors to Referendum 71 will not be exempt from public disclosure, the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission ruled Thursday, while another group moved to block the measure entirely. The request to remove the names was made earlier this month by Protect Marriage Washington, the group backing Referendum 71, which seeks […]

The cities of El Paso, Texas, and Reno, Nev., voted this week in favor of extending health insurance benefits to the domestic partners of city employees, including gay and lesbian couples.

Elections officials say they’ve now verified more than 100,000 signatures for Referendum 71, an attempt to overturn Washington’s new “everything but marriage” same-sex domestic partner law. The totals as of Monday evening are: 103,898 checked, 91,716 accepted and 12,182 rejected. The overall error rate is 11.72 percent. In order to make the November statewide ballot, […]

The Nevada secretary of state’s office will take applications starting Monday from both gay and straight couples who want to take advantage of Nevada’s new domestic partners law.

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. […]

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 […]

Gay couples trickled into county clerk’s offices in Wisconsin on Monday for their first chance to sign up for the state’s new domestic partnership registry.