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Partners Task Force for Gay and Lesbian Couples Online from 1995-2022 Demian and Steve Bryant originally founded Partners as a monthly newsletter in 1986. By late 1990 it was reformatted into a bi-monthly magazine. Print publication was halted by 1995 when Demian published Partners as a Web site, which greatly expanded readership. In 1988, the Partners National Survey of Lesbian & Gay Couples report was published; the first major U.S. survey on same-sex couples in a decade. In 1996, Demian produced The Right to Marry, a video documentary based on the dire need for equality that was made clear by the data from the survey mentioned above. The video featured interviews with Rev. Mel White, Evan Wolfson, Phyllis Burke, Richard Mohr, Kevin Cathcart, Faygele benMiriam, Benjamin Cable-McCarthy, Susan Reardon, Frances Fuchs, Tina Podlodowski, and Chelle Mileur. Demian has been the sole operator during the last two decades of Partners. Demian stopped work on Partners Task Force in order to realize his other time-consuming projects, which include publishing the book “Operating Manual for Same-Sex Couples: Navigating the rules, rites & rights” - which is now available on Amazon. The book is based on the Partners Survey mentioned above, his interviews of scores of couples, and 36 years of writing hundreds of articles about same-sex couples. It’s also been informed by his personal experience in a 20-year, same-sex relationship. Demian’s other project is to publish his “Photo Stories by Demian” books based on his more than six decades as a photographer and writer. |
The New Jersey registration status was established in January 12, 2004, and became effective in July 10, 2004. By offering a domestic partnership registration status, instead of legal marriage, New Jersey has created an apartheid, with one set of laws pertaining to opposite-sex couples, and another for same-sex couples. [See Marrying Apartheid]
Registrations do not have any legal weight in the Federal sphere, and, to date, only California and New Jersey officially recognizes this kind of status from other states. While this status offers an improved range of protections for same-sex couples who live in New Jersey, it contains many gaps, including the rights and responsibilities when a relationship is dissolved. For instance, there are no provisions if one partner gives up a career to stay home and raise children, or to help run a business.
In 2004, 2,831 couples registered.
State officials informed insurers they must offer domestic partner benefits if they write policies that include married couples, and directed hospitals that domestic partners should be permitted to visit in intensive care units. Local governments can also decide to provide employee benefits, based on the registration. As of June 2004, Maplewood, South Orange, and Princeton Borough passed such measures. As of December 15, 2004, 2,640 same-sex couples registered as domestic partners. This included 1,582 female couples and 1,058 male couples. Also, 42 opposite-sex couples 62 or older registered.
Several trial courts in New Jersey have modestly expanded the specific benefits under the 2004 law in technical rulings that found the legislation to be permissive rather than strictly bound by the rights itemized. In early January 2006, the New Jersey legislature overwhelmingly voted for Bill 2083, which expands the domestic partner law to allow a surviving partner inheritance rights and control over funeral arrangements equivalent to that of a surviving spouse, even if there is no will. The Bill was signed by Gov. Richard Codey on January 11, 2006.
Other bills clarifying the rights of domestic partners in the areas of guardianship, health benefits and mental health directives were also passed. Because the status is still new, it is conceivable judgements could be made — based on an active registration — against a partner for their partner’s hospital bills, for example, even if they were no longer partners. Further, as the status specifically recognizes other domestic partnerships from other states, it is not clear what will happen regarding a status that offers more rights that does New Jersey. Potential conflicts could easily arise with couples who have a registration from California, a Civil Union from Vermont, or a legal marriage from Massachusetts. Our assessment is that the registration is largely symbolic, full of large gaps and ambiguities that render domestic partnerships a high wire act without a net, and frequently, without a wire. Cue the lawyers. Steven Goldstein, chair of Garden State Equality, has noted that with the 10 new partnership rights and obligations, same-sex couples still enjoy less than one percent of the more than 1,049 rights triggered by legal marriage that have been identified by the government’s General Accounting Office. [Now actually counted at 1,138. See our article: U.S. Federal Laws for the Legally Married] Said Goldstein: “At that pace, we will get full rights in 100 years. We can get this all done at once with marriage equality. It’s demeaning to have to beg for these incremental steps.”
Non-residents of New Jersey may not register as domestic partners. Part-time residence seems to be allowed. If either party is a member of one of the six New Jersey-administered retirement systems, the couple’s shared common residence may be outside New Jersey. Therefor, a non-resident couple could register if at least one partner were a State employee or an employee of a public agency that participated in one of the covered pension plans.
New Jersey government Web site information:
For a vast survey, please see our:
Legal Marriage Report: Global Status of Legal Marriage Return to: Domestic Partnership Benefits
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