Anti-Gay Group Sues to Stop Wisconsin Domestic Partnerships

Under a provision of the Wisconsin budget signed by Gov. Jim Doyle last month, same-sex couples will soon be able to apply for a declaration of domestic partnership with their county of residence.

The Wisconsin Domestic Partnership provision will offer same-sex couples some rights and benefits extended to married couples in Wisconsin, such as requiring hospitals and nursing homes to allow visitation for domestic partners, the ability to make end of life decisions for a domestic partner if he or she is unable to, and permitting family leave in the event of the death or serious illness of a domestic partner.

The registrations are scheduled to begin on Aug. 3 and will make Wisconsin the first state in the Midwest to legislatively extend legal protections to same-sex couples.

But if the Wisconsin anti-Gay group, Wisconsin Family Action has its way, that won’t be happening.

Thursday they filed a lawsuit directly with the Wisconsin Supreme Court seeking to block the provisions implementation, saying it violates a Wisconsin constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and civil unions passed by voter in 2006.

Wisconsin Family Action said in their suit that allowing such domestic partnerships establishes a legal status that resembles marriage and this is a violation of the state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and any identical or substantially similar legal status.

“Elected officials should never pass laws that violate the will of Wisconsin voters who legitimately amended the state constitution in a fair election,” Julaine Appling, president of Wisconsin Family Action and lead petitioner in the lawsuit, said in a statement. “This new domestic partnership scheme is a sneaky assault on marriage from those who are determined to redefine marriage in Wisconsin.”

During the budget process, the Wisconsin Legislative Council reviewed the proposal and said the partnerships wouldn’t be in conflict with the amendment and a spokesman for the Wisconsin Governor said the domestic partnerships were about providing some legal protections for same-sex couples, not marriage.

“This is simply a set of basic protections to ensure that people can get some simple, straightforward rules that help them,” said Lee Sensenbrenner, “No one ever set this up to be marriage.”

Fair Wisconsin, a gay rights advocacy group said in a statement Friday that it is reviewing the lawsuit and if need be is prepared to defend the domestic partnerships measure.

Going directly to the Supreme Court in Wisconsin is seen as an unusual move, and legal experts say it is atypical for the Wisconsin high court to accept such cases without them first having gone through lower courts.

However the high court did agree this past spring to hear another lawsuit directly that challenges the constitutionality of the Wisconsin marriage amendment itself.

http://www.wisconsinfamilyaction.org/DPR_MediaCenter.htm