A discussion of domestic partnerships

Portland attorney Beth A. Allen led a workshop on campus Thursday about the Oregon Domestic Partnership Law, where she stressed the differences between marriage and the new law and the drawbacks it contains.

At the workshop, several students involved in the Student Legal and Mediation Services and the Queer Resource Center came to show their support for the new law and to learn more about it.

The law allows same-sex couples some rights that are similar to those of marriage. A few of these include hospital visitation rights, the ability to obtain the partner’s personal items after death and dissolution procedures for couples that are similar to divorce.

The law was passed last spring and was originally supposed to go into effect Jan. 1, but was blocked temporarily by a judge until Feb. 1. Couples lined up all over Oregon on Feb. 4 to register as domestic partners.

Allen, an advocate for equal rights, stressed at the workshop that the Domestic Partnership Law is not marriage, and there is no federal recognition behind it. One significant drawback to the law, she said, is that it will be legal only in Oregon and not recognized by other states.

In a legal marriage, she said, there are approximately 1,000 federal benefits not recognized with a domestic partnership.

“This law is unconstitutional,” she said. “It says we will take one group of people and treat you differently. Separate but equal–separate but unequal.”

At the meeting, Allen said that domestic partnerships are something that should be entered into on a case-by-case basis. She is concerned that couples, for whom this may not be the right choice, will obtain a partnership without proper consideration, simply because it is now available. Allen also urged non-biological parents at the meeting to adopt through second-parent adoption, even after they register for a domestic partnership.

Although she said the Domestic Partnership Law is not the optimal step for equal rights, she added, “It feels pretty good for right now.”