D.C. City Councilmember Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) co-sponsored last week's D.C. domestic partnership bill. Evans said the bill amounts to a 'de facto civil unions' law for the District. (Blade file photo by Henry Linser)
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LOU CHIBBARO JR
Friday, May 16, 2008
D.C. Council on May 6 approved the addition of 39 new provisions to the city’s domestic partners law, bringing the law to a point where same-sex couples who register as domestic partners will receive most, but not quite all, of the rights and benefits of marriage under District law.
Similar to its approval of earlier domestic partner law updates over the past several years, Council passed the
latest measure, the Omnibus Domestic Partnership Equality Amendment Act of 2008, by unanimous voice vote, without discussion or debate.
“I’m not a percentage type person,” said Councilmember Phil Mendelson (D-At-Large), the author and lead sponsor of the legislation. “But I’d say we’re getting very close,” he said, to domestic partners receiving full parity with married couples under local law.
Mendelson and other backers of the domestic partners law are quick to point out that the D.C. legislation cannot provide domestic partners with any of the more than 1,200 federal rights and benefits of marriage, such as Social Security benefits, because those provisions are prohibited under federal law.
Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have promised to push for granting same-sex couples the same federal rights and benefits that come with marriage, through civil unions.
D.C. Councilmember Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), who is a co-sponsor of the omnibus domestic partners bill passed by the Council last week, said the bill, combined with the existing DP law, amounts to a “de facto civil unions” law in the city.
“We may have a provision here and there that still needs to be changed, but this bill is a major chunk of what is needed to be completed,” Evans said.
Mendelson introduced two more domestic partnership bills earlier this year that he said will complete the process of providing same-sex partners with all of D.C.’s marriage-related rights, benefits and obligations.
The earlier D.C. bills approved by Council added most of the better known rights and benefits associated with marriage, such as full inheritance rights for domestic partners, obligations to pay alimony and child support in the event of dissolution of a domestic partnership, immunity from court testimony against a domestic partner and the ability to file joint income tax returns for local D.C. taxes.
The latest bill approved on May 6 changes a wide range of D.C. laws that touch on whether a city resident is married or single. It amends the D.C. Campaign Finance Reform and Conflict of Interest Law, for example, to include a domestic partner in the definition of a family member.
It amends the Boxing and Wrestling Commission Act of 1975 to prevent a commissioner from providing a financial advantage to a domestic partner in the same way the law prevents a commissioner from offering favoritism to a husband or wife.
The bill provides both rights and obligations for domestic partners in a total of 39 separate laws that touch on such areas as rental housing, condominiums, real estate transactions, nursing homes, life insurance, worker’s compensation, investigations into child abuse and the police department’s musical band, among other areas.
Rick Rosendall, vice president of the Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance, which has served as the lead lobbying advocate for D.C.’s domestic partner laws, said that with the near completion of the DP law, GLAA is now turning its attention to city recognition of same-sex relationships from other states and countries.
Rosendall noted that the city’s domestic partners law currently has no provision for recognizing same-sex couples from other states or countries that have been joined by a domestic partnership, civil union, or marriage. Massachusetts and four foreign countries, including Canada, have legalized same-sex marriage.
“What we don’t want is couples from elsewhere to be treated as strangers under the law,” he said.
Rosendall was referring to how under D.C. law, a married same-sex couple from Canada or Massachusetts, or a couple joined in Vermont by a civil union, would be considered no different than a “stranger” under District law.
He said GLAA will ask Council to pass a separate law recognizing same-sex couples joined in other jurisdictions through marriage, civil unions or domestic partnerships as domestic partners under D.C. law.
“We would be recognizing other relationships from elsewhere as domestic partnerships, not as marriages in the case of Massachusetts and some countries,” he said.
GLAA and other local gay groups have said they do not currently want the Council to legalize same-sex marriage because they believe Congress would immediately step in to overturn a same-sex marriage law. The groups have said they support same-sex marriage on principle but don’t think it’s possible in D.C. in the near future.
D.C. Council Bill 17-135 (Omnibus Domestic Partnership Equality Amendment Act of 2008)
1. Amends General Legislative Procedures Act of 1975 to clarify that step relationships include relationships created by a domestic partnership registration.
2. Amends D.C. Government Comprehensive Merit Personnel Act of 1978 to include a domestic partner in the definition of relative in the career and education services and to allow domestic partners to be included in employee’s health insurance, disability compensation and retirement.
3. Amends D.C. Retirement Reform Act to include domestic partners as parties in interest.
4. Amends Police Officers, Fire Fighters and Teachers Retirement Benefit Replace-ment Plan Act of 1998 to include domestic partners as parties in interest.
5. Amends D.C. Campaign Finance Reform and Conflict of Interest Act to include domestic partner in the definition of immediate family.
6. Amends D.C. Human Rights Act of 1977 to include domestic partner in the definition of family member.
7. Amends the Act for the Promotion of Anatomical Science to prevent the desecration of graves in the District of Columbia to grant domestic partners standing as related to the deceased to provide for funerals that would otherwise be held at public expense.
8. Amends the Boxing and Wrestling Commission Act of 1975 to preclude a commissioner from acting where it might affect the financial interest of his or her domestic partner.
9. Amends D.C. Health Occupations Revisions Act of 1985 to include domestic partner within the definition of household member.
10. Amends the Law to Legalize Lotteries, Daily Numbers, Games and Bingo and Raffles for Charitable Purposes in the District of Columbia to exclude domestic partners of certain persons from eligibility for prizes of providing supplies.
11. Amends the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect Act of 1977 to exclude domestic partner privilege from testimony concerning the welfare of or the removal of parental rights of a neglected child.
12. Amends “An Act” to provide for the mandatory reporting by physicians and institutions in the District of Columbia of certain physical abuse of children to provide that the domestic partner privilege shall not be grounds for excluding evidence in neglect proceedings.
13. Amends “An Act” to authorize the establishment of a band in the Metropolitan Police Force to include domestic partners as survivors for purposes of police band director retirement.
14. Amends the D.C. Housing Authority Act of 1999 to prohibit the domestic partner of certain persons from being commissioners.
15. Amends the Uniform Declaration of Death Act of 1981 to prohibit domestic partners from witnessing a death certificate.
16. Amends the Mental Health Consumers’ Rights Protection Act of 2001 to preserve the right of consumers to enter into and dissolve domestic partnerships.
17. Amends the AIDS Health Care Response Act of 1986 to expand services under this act to include an AIDS patient’s domestic partner.
18. Amends section 15-503 of the D.C. Official Code to include domestic partners when computing family aggregate earnings to determine an exemption.
19. Amends Title 16 of the D.C. Official Code to include domestic partners in the list of persons who can petition for habeas corpus and whose testimonial privilege does not apply in family division cases.
20. Amends section 19-1106 of the D.C. Official Code to provide a presumption of survivorship for domestic partners with regard to custodial trusts.
21. Amends Title 21 of the D.C. Code to give domestic partners the same standing as spouses in the treatment of mentally ill partners.
22. Amends “An Act” to establish a code of laws for the District of Columbia to prohibit false personations for domestic partnership registrations.
23. Amends Section 23-547 of the D.C. Official Code to provide immunity from testimony for domestic partners.
24. Amends “An Act” relating to the payment or delivery by banks or other persons or institutions in the District of Columbia of deposits of money and property held in the names of two or more persons to include domestic partners as survivors for joint accounts.
25. Amends Title 28 of the D.C. Official Code to include the interest of domestic partners in trust administration decisions.
26. Amends the Health Insurance portability and Accountability Federal Law Conformity and No-Fault Motor Vehicle Insurance Act of 1998 to include domestic partners as dependents.
27. Amends the Life Insurance Act to include domestic partners as dependants.
28. Amends the Employment Services Licensing and Regulation Act of 1984 to include domestic partnership within the meaning of the marital status.
29. Amends the Health Care Benefits Expansion Act of 1992 to permit legal relationships substantially similar to domestic partnerships to qualify for benefits and to clarify that a domestic partnership is terminated upon the marriage of the partners.
30. Amends the D.C. Workers’ Compensation Act of 1979 to include domestic partners as survivors.
31. Amends “An Act” for the retirement of public-school teachers in the District of Columbia to include domestic partners as survivors.
32. Amends the D.C. Deed Recordation Tax Act to replace gender specific terms with gender neutral terms.
33. Amends the Residential Real Property Seller Disclosure, Funeral Services Date Change, and Public Service Com-mission Independent Procure-ment Authority Act of 1998 to include transfers of real estate between domestic partners as excluded from the provisions of that chapter.
34. Amends “An Act” to establish a code of law for the District of Columbia to permit domestic partners to hold property as tenants by the entirety and to revise the deed forms to include domestic partners.
35. Amends the Condominium Act of 1976 to permit domestic partners to hold condominium units as tenants by the entirety.
36. Amends the Rental Housing Conversation and Sale Act of 1980 to replace gender-specific terms with gender-neutral terms.
37. Amends the Rental Housing Act of 1985 to include domestic partners when making the determination of the smallest unit size appropriate for an eligible family.
38. Amends the Nursing Home and Community Residence Facility Residents’ Protections Act of 1985 to include domestic partners among those unqualified to be appointed as a receiver.
39. Amends Title 47 of the D.C. Official Code to require domestic partners be treated the same as spouses in the administration of District of Columbia Tax law.
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