An Early Christmas Gift: Wisconsin Court Upholds Domestic Partner Registry

So, up there in Wisconsin, LGBT rights advocates scored an early Christmas victory when an appeals court ruled that state’s domestic partnership registry was constitutional. But the bad news is that, as sometimes happens at Christmas, the gift might be returned.

Conservatives vow to take the case all the way the Wisconsin’s GOP-leaning Supreme Court because, they say, the domestic partner registry is a little too much like marriage, and that it violates a 2006 state constitutional amendment that banned same-sex marriage or anything that even remotely resembles marriage equality.

And while the 4th District Court of Appeals disagreed with the right-wingnuts, and actually listed all the rights that opposite sex couples enjoy that same-sex couples don't, including joint property ownership, joint adoption and the ability to share health benefits even after a divorce, the GOP is still unhappy. And will likely stay unhappy until they make absolutely certain that gay and lesbian couples remain legally unequal. 

Members of the conservative group Wisconsin Family Action—isn’t it odd that every single anti-LGBT group feels the need to use the word family in its name?—filed a lawsuit in 2010 claiming the registry created a legal status a little too similar to marriage for same-sex couples and therefore violated the constitutional ban on gay marriage. And they did not like it. Gay folks marrying and being all equal and stuff? Well, I never…..

So, naturally, Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen refused to defend the registry, declaring it was clearly unconstitutional, which forced former Governor Jim Doyle, a Democrat, to appoint private attorneys to defend it. But when GOP asshat, wingnut and Republican Scott Walker became governor in 2011, he instantly fired those attorneys.

But, last summer, Dane County Circuit Judge Daniel Moeser ruled that the registry was constitutional and not substantially similar to marriage.

Wisconsin Family Action members appealed, and when the 4th District tried to send the case directly to the state Supreme Court, that body—dominated by conservative justices—refused to hear the case and sent it back to the appellate level. And the appeals court issued a unanimous decision, saying voters believed the marriage equality ban amendment wouldn't block benefits for same-sex couples, in part because Republicans who sponsored the amendment said as much in news releases and newspaper stories.

In fact, one of those GOP led groups that, at first seemed to support the registry, is that same Wisconsin Family Action group, whose president, Julaine Appling, wrote in an article about the marriage equality ban that legislators could consider some "legal construct ... that would give select benefits to co-habiting adults." Only now she’s saying that the registry is too much like marriage and, therefore, must go.

Flippety-flop.

It's a bit like a tennis game,, following this story, but now that it seems headed back to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, maybe this time they'll rule, and maybe this time the domestic partner registry will stick. At least until marriage equality in passed in the Land Of Cheese.

And it will pass, my friends, one day it will pass.

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If You Like Their Cheese, You'll Like This, Too

If you live up Wisconsin way, mark your calenders for August 3rd; it's gonna get crazy busy up there, or so they say.

That's the day same-sex couples all across the state will be able to take advantage of a historic piece of legislation that was signed into law this past Monday by Governor Jim Doyle that recognizes domestic partnerships in Wisconsin.

And it isn't simply "Hi there, we recognize you." There are dozens of legal protections that were previously available only to those who formed an opposite sex marriage, including the right to take family leave to care for a sick or dying partner, the ability to access a partner's medical records and the right to inherit a partner's property. In addition, Governor Doyle approved granting health care benefits to the same-sex partners of state employees.

Way to go, Governor!

Madison resident Dan Ross, who has been in a committed relationship with his partner for 17 years, says the cost--$115, which is the same price as an opposite sex marriage license--is a small price to pay for the assurances it will provide, particularly with inheritance issues.

The law makes Wisconsin the first state with a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage to also legally recognize domestic partnerships; so the bad seems to have brought about the good, in this case. People are saying that the campaign to bring about the marriage equality ban strengthened the fight for the domestic partnership bill. It didn't hurt that the state Assembly and Senate were both controlled by Democrats for the first time in 14 years.

Go Democrats!

Now, Wosconsin, you've taken this one small step for man, and man, or womena nd woman, why don't you prepare to take that giant leap for mankind and get to work on marriage equality?