Archive Version of
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.


Partners Task Force for Gay & Lesbian Couples
Demian, director    206-935-1206    demian@buddybuddy.com    Seattle, WA    Founded 1986

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Reject “Defense of Marriage Act”
Libertarian Party Press Release
by Steve Dasbach, Party Chair
June 5, 1996


The government should get out of the business of deciding who can fall in love and get married — and should eliminate all laws that prohibit same-sex marriages, the Libertarian Party said today.

“If two adults want to legally say ‘I do,’ the government shouldn’t have the right to say, ‘No, you don’t,’ ” Libertarian Party Chairman Steve Dasbach said.

“Marriage should be a private contract between two consenting adults and their church. Intolerant laws shouldn’t be part of the picture,” he said.

To help end marriage discrimination, Dasbach urged Congress to reject the so-called “Defense of Marriage Act.” The bill, inspired by reports that Hawaii may legalize same-sex marriages, would exempt states from having to recognize same-sex marriages under another state’s laws.

“We’re not advocating special rights for any group, just equal rights under the law,” said Dasbach. “Basically, Libertarians believe the government should stay out of personal romantic, religious, and legal decisions of adults.

“If Congress genuinely wants to promote and protect marriage, they should start by lowering the burdensome taxes that have busted the family budget, and ending the harmful welfare system that has rendered marriage obsolete,” he said.

Dasbach downplayed some Americans’ fears that legalizing same-sex marriage would somehow corrupt or tarnish heterosexual marriages.

“Marriage between men and women is a social and religious institution that has thrived for thousands of years,” he said. “Marriage is not so fragile that it will be undermined by extending the franchise to the small percentage of the population that is gay.”

On the topic of equal rights for gay people, the Libertarian Party Platform endorses “the cessation of state oppression and harassment of homosexual men and women, that they, at last, be accorded their full rights as individuals.”

Original text may be found at: www.lp.org/lpn/9607-marriage.html



Please see our article: “Defense of Marriage Act” - Description and the Bill’s Text


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