May 16, 2008  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO J  | COMMENTS     

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 ...