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Petition Drive To Repeal WA Domestic Partnership Law Hurts Both Ways

In Washington, Conservative groups are trying to put the kibosh on a law which recently extended domestic partnership benefits. The effort has until 25 July to get enough signatures to put Referendum 71 on the ballot in November. Of course the fact that a copy of the 114 page law has to be available to the people who are signing the petition. Unfortunately, in order to do that, it means setting up a massive sheet of paper with incredibly dense writing. Thus, no one is actually reading the content of the law and the people who are busy pushing the petition drive are busy distorting what it is suppose to do.

Domestic Partners are not limited to just same-sex couples, and this law extended a large number of the rights enjoyed by heterosexual couples who do not want to be or cannot be married. Domestic Partnerships often include children of the elderly who live with their parents to care for them, and this extends those rights without having a problem. Domestic Partnerships often short cut many of the legal hurdles involved in obtaining a dozen or so documents granting the ability of a child caretaker to care for their parent. Those extended in this bill include the right to use sick leave to take care of the other person in the domestic partnership, the right to sign certain legal documents without recourse to a lawyer, and insurance rights, among others.

The petition drive is going to hurt many people within domestic partnerships simply because they are going to be denying rights needed for the care of the elderly. In an increasingly aging society, many children are taking care of their elderly parents. Many of them are incapable of navigating the complex laws required to acquire many of the rights needed to take care of increasingly frail parents.

From The Seattle Times:
Order: Gay partnership foe names don’t have to be released
Withhold signatures on Referendum 71

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