LAGUNA BEACH : City Adopts Unmarried Couples’ Bill

The county’s first law to grant gay and lesbian couples some of the same rights enjoyed by husbands and wives won final approval from the City Council on Tuesday.

The “domestic partnerships” ordinance was unanimously endorsed after an emotional, half-hour hearing.

Only two people spoke against the measure. Both objected to the city’s assertion that the law addresses the changing nature of the family.

“Hogwash!” said Frank Visca, his left hand pressed against a maroon Bible and his right hand waving. “The American family is still the American family, the way it has been for 200 years.”

Later, as Mayor Robert F. Gentry made his closing comments, a few people tried to shout him down. But loud, sustained applause for the measure’s passage quickly followed.

The law allows homosexual and unmarried heterosexual couples to register for a certificate that would give them specific privileges, such as the right to visit their partners in a jail or hospital and to make funeral arrangements for them. Supporters say the law will also aid seniors who choose to live together without marrying.

The bill was proposed by Gentry, who has invited couples from outside the city to register in Laguna Beach and who said he hopes that the law will become a model for the rest of the country.

Gentry told the packed council chambers that the law has “extremely minor legal implications” but that it is necessary for the “recognition and validation” of those couples.

“I know a lot of those people, and I am one of them,” Gentry said. “To me this is a very important family activity. I am a family man.”

The law has personal implications for Gentry, whose companion of 15 years died of AIDS in 1989. Gentry said he had difficulty claiming his companion’s body from a Newport Beach hospital after the death.