To Whom it may concern:

From: Carol Migden

Assembly

California Legislature

Assemblywoman, Thirteenth District

Chairwoman,Assembly Committee on Appropriations

We need you to join our efforts in making California's New Domestic Partnership Law a success. For the first time, California law legally recognizes lesbian and gay couples as domestic partners. As one of the many supporters of this effort over the years, I am asking for your help to register 50,000 couples by the end of 2000. Now that the state of California recognizes same sex couples, we have an enormous opportunity to show the strength of lesbian and gay families by standing up and being counted. We can do this by registering our relationships as domestic partners. I have enclosed materials for GLOBE to assist us in registering couples: registration forms from the Secretary of State's office, a fact sheet explaining the new law, and answers to frequently asked questions. (All on this web page). If you have any questions or need further information, please contact my office.. Please contact: Alan LoFaso in my capital office at (916) 319-2013 or Eric Potashner in my district at (415) 557-3000. The passage of the Knight Initiative was a setback for our community. However, the campaign elevated the discussion of equal protections for lesbian and gay families. Registering domestic partnerships is the next step to winning that equality. Sincerely, Carol Migden

The New California Domestic Partnership Law

fact sheet page

California enters the new century with a long overdue, yet ground breaking new law. With the enactment of AB 26, authored by Assemblywoman Carole Migden and signed into law by Governor Gray Davis, California becomes only the second state in the union to legally recognize same sex relationships/ Beginning in the year 2000, lesbian, gay and senior citizen couples will be able to register with the State of California as domestic partners. Registering as a domestic partner is simple. Registration forms can be obtained from the Secretary of State's website at http://www.ss.ca.gov, from the Secretary of State's office, or your local county clerk or you can stop in at: "The LIghthouse Community Center 1217 "A" Street, Hayward CA94541 Copies will be available there Domestic partnerships affirm the validity, dignity, and legitimacy of families. Legal recognition of these relationships provides security and stability to domestic partners and their children. Moreover, registration enables a domestic partner to extend specific benefits such as hospital visitation and health coverage to the other partner and his or her children.

What is a Domestic Partnership under the New Law? According to the new law, domestic partners must share a common residence and agree to be jointly responsible for each other's basic living expenses during the existence of the domestic partnership. The exact requirments of a domestic partnershiip are codified in Section 297 of the California Family Code and are summarized here. Domestic partners must be adults, unmarried, and unrelated by blood. Domestic Partners must also be members of the same sex, unless both parties are senior citizens. Same sex domestic partners must simply be over 18 years of age. In order for an opposite sex couple to register as domestic partners, both individuals must be over the age of 62 and either eligible for Social Security pension benefits or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) as an aged individual. Domestic Partners must share a common residence. The couple is not required to jointly own any property. In the case of rental property, it is not necessary that both partners' names appear on a lease. A domestic partner may retain another residence, and either partner may temporarily leave for business travel or any other reason as long as the partner intends to return to the common residence. Domestic partners must simply share a residence that is the location of a shared household. Couples can become legally registered domestic partners when they register together with the Secretary of State.

What Benefits Come from Registering as Domestic Partners Domestic partnership provide legal and societal affirmation of the value of lesbian and gay relationships. Currently, the new domestic partnership law guarantees hospital visitation right to registered couples and extends employee health benefits for certain public sector employees whose coverage is governed under state law. Additional benefits are likely to accrued to registered domestic partners in the future. Private employers may also use state registration as a basis for extending benefits, and under the statute, local governments may enact addtional rights and duties related to domestic partnerships.

New law to take effect in January of 2002 AB 25 is signed by Governor Davis The law will give registered couples several basic legal and financial tools. Partners will soon have the legal right to make life and death decisions on each other's behalf.  As enacted under AB 25, domestic partners who register with the Secretary of State will have the ability to: 1- Relocate with a domestic partner without losing unemployment benefits. 2- Use sick leave to care for an ill partner or the child of a domestic partner.<> 3- Be exempt from state income tax the health benefits provided to domestic partners. 4-  File disability benefits on behalf of an incapacitated partner.<> 5- Make medical decisions in the hospital or act as a conservator. 6- Sue for wrongful death as well as seek damages for negligent infliction of emotional distress. 7- Administer a partner's estate. 8- Bequeath property to a domestic partner using the statutory will. 9- Adopt a partner's child using the stepparent adoption process. 10- Continue health benefits for surviving partners of "Government Employees" and retirees. Additionally, AB 25 requires health plans to offer domestic partner coverage to businesses and associations similar to coverage offered to dependents of employees and subscribers. This requirement will assist small and medium-sized employers that decide to offer domestic partner benefits to their employees.   Finally, this measure will change present law to allow opposite-sex couples to register as domestic partners if one or both of the partners are over the age of 62.

Hospital Visitation Registered domestic partners are quaranteed the right to visit their partners in the hospital. No durable power of attorney for health care or any other documentation is required. If any other family member of a hospitalized domestic partner objects to the other partner's visiting privileges, the hospital or health facility is nevertheless legally obligated to provide access to the hospitalized partner. Only if visitation is generally curtailed for a bona fide purpose, such as the hospitalized partner's health, may a facility deny visitation.

Health Coverage State and local agency employees who are covered though the California Public Employee Retirement System Domestic partner health coverage for non-unionized state employees is to be governed by regulations developed be the Department of Personnel Administration. Local agency employees may be eligible for domestic partner coverage if the agency contracts with Cal-PERS for health coverage and opts to cover domestic partners. Inquire with your agency's personnel department for more information. You should also contact your union as most agencies have opted to cover domestic partnerships through the collective bargaining process.

What Are the Obligations of Being a Domestic Partner? By registering as domestic partners, the couple agrees to be jointly responsible for each other's basic living expenses. These expenses include shelter, utilities, and the cost of maintaining common household. If other economic benefits accrue from the domestic partnership such as health insurance coverage, they are also included as basic living expenses This responsibility only includes basic living expenses incurred during the existence of the domestic partnership. The new domestic partnership law provides for no economic support after termination. Domestic partners do not share community property as married couples do, nor are they liable for spousal support or palimony as a result of creating the domestic partnership. Notwithstanding the legal partnership, however, common law palimony or quasi-community property obligations may arise separartely as a result of shared living or other evidence of mutual economic support. The new law explicitly states that registration as domestic partners, in and of itself, does not establish these responsibilities. Registration as domestic partners also does not affect either partner's tax liability or property ownership.

Where Can I Find More Information ? Additional information regarding registration can be optained from the Secretary of State's office by calling (916) 653-4984 or by visiting the office's website at http://www.ss.ca.gov. after January 1, 2000. Health benefit information for state employees is available from Cal-PERS at (800)237-3345 or the California Department of Personnel Administration at (916)324-0455 or via the Internet at http://www.dpa.ca.gov. You may also call the Office of Assemblywoman Carole Migden at (916)319-2013 for further information. The new domestic partners law was enacted as AB 26 authored by Assemblywoman Carole Migden, D- San Francisco, Chapter 588 of the Statutes of 1999. The statute is codified in California Family Code Section 297 et. seq. and California Government Code 22867 et. seq. A copy of the law and further information regarding AB 26 and other legislation can be obtained via the Internet by visiting the Assembly and Senate websites at http://www.assembly.ca.gov and http://www.sen.ca.gov , respectively.

Bay Times, May 25, 2000 (This is a portion of "Capital Roundup" by Ann Rostow, p 10) Antonio Villaraigosa's LGBT liaison, Laurie McBride, tells the Bay Times that California's gay community, its allies, and its lawmakers, should be gathering a consensus about how best to fight for couples' rights in the wake of Prop. 22 and of the civil union bill passed in Vermont. "I have come to believe," McBride says, "that the majority of people in our community now equate full equality with full legal recognition of our partners and our families. If that's the case, then we'd better decide what we're doing and what road we're marching down." Should we, for example, keep adding to the definition of the state domestic partner registry through the enactment of niche bills like the four mentioned above (AB1990, AB2047, AB2211, AB2421)? Or, should we propose, and fight for, a more sweeping civil union bill which would displace the DP system? On the one hand, adding to the domestic partner registry could mean a slow and tedious succession of legislative battles. On the other hand, how can we pass a civil union bill if we're having difficulty constructing a majority vote on something as basic as the right to make medical decisions for your partner? In McBride's view, the civil union route - difficult though it may be - is the path to take; and even if a sweeping bill would be tough for the legislature to swallow at first, you've got to start somewhere and lay the groundwork for passage in a future session. Adding to the problems, McBride says, is a feeling of post-Prop. 22 ennui from the richest members of the community, whose financial support is required for any major legislative battle. And finally, she notes the great need for a grassroots political infrastructure that can deliver the human power, education, visibility, volunteerism, activism and votes, necessary for a successful proactive statewide fight for couples' rights. "We need," insists McBride, one of our community's top political strategists, "some bottom-up strength."

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