Bill Advancing Rights of Same-Sex Couples Moves Forward

A bill to greatly expand the rights of same-sex couples cleared its first hurdle in the Assembly on Tuesday despite having been labeled by opponents as an attack on the institution of marriage.

AB 205, by Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg (D-Los Angeles), would grant gay and lesbian couples -- as well as heterosexual domestic partners -- many of the same rights and responsibilities that California gives to married couples.

That includes the ability to file joint tax returns, have joint ownership of property and joint obligation for debt and to authorize medical treatment for a partner’s children.

“This is about simple justice,” Goldberg said in introducing the bill to the Assembly Judiciary Committee. “It is a giant step along the road. It is not the last step.”

Goldberg, a lesbian with a longtime partner, said she would carry a bill to allow gay couples to marry “in a hot second” if she thought it would pass the Legislature. AB 205, she said, would at least put same-sex couples closer to equality with married couples.

The bill passed the committee 9 to 4 after representatives of the Traditional Values Coalition, the Committee on Moral Concerns and other conservative groups argued that it would undermine marriage.

They said AB 205 would undo Proposition 22, which stated that only marriage between a man and woman is valid in California. Voters passed it three years ago by 22%.

“This bill pushes for gay marriage and reverses the will of the people,” said Randy Thomasson, executive director of the Campaign for California Families.

After the vote, a few opponents hoisted protest signs on the sidewalk outside the Capitol.

“It completely unravels the fabric of society,” said Dick Otterstad of Albany, Calif., holding a sign that read, “Stop the Gay/Davis War on Marriage.”

Those speaking in favor of the bill included Lydia Ramos, 47, of Pomona, who lost her partner of 14 years, Linda, in a car accident last July.

“I couldn’t even make her funeral arrangements,” Ramos said. “Everything was decided by her relatives. I wasn’t able to do any of this because I was not considered next of kin even though we had 14 years together and three kids. In my heart, this was my family and it was my obligation to take care of my wife.”

Other supporters at the hearing included Keith Bradkowski, who lost his partner on an airliner flown by hijackers into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, and Sharon Smith, whose lesbian partner was attacked and killed in January 2001 by a neighbor’s dogs in their San Francisco apartment building.

Those victims helped win the passage of laws that give domestic partners certain inheritance rights and the ability to sue for wrongful death. Other privileges won piecemeal in previous years include hospital visitation rights, the right to make health care decisions for an incapacitated partner, and health benefits if one partner is a state employee.

To qualify for those rights, a couple must be registered with the secretary of state as domestic partners. That simple process requires that they attest that they live together and are jointly responsible for each other’s basic living expenses. There are 19,117 registered domestic partnerships in California, according to Secretary of State Kevin Shelley.

AB 205 would amend many sections of state law to extend rights to domestic partners in such legal realms as child custody, financial duties to children, public assistance, transfer of property, tax exemptions, organ donations and burial.

But the bill does not bestow more than 1,000 federal benefits given to married couples, such as those related to Social Security, military service, Medicare and family leave.

“It’s not always easy to come forward and ask for less than you deserve,” Geoffrey Kors, executive director of the California Alliance for Pride and Equality, told the Assembly committee. “And this bill is less than full equality. It’s not even separate but equal. But we come asking for this because we have to be able to take care of our families.”

Ben Lopez, speaking for the Traditional Values Coalition, said gays and lesbians will not rest until they get all the privileges of marriage.

“What we have here is a cultural war with the norms of nature and of common law being threatened, twisted ... and altered to fit an out-of-step, out-of-mainstream lifestyle,” Lopez said.

The committee also passed a bill to ban state contracts with companies that don’t offer the same benefits to domestic partners as they do employee spouses. The bill, AB 17 by Assemblywoman Christine Kehoe, (D-San Diego), passed 10 to 2.

The governor has not yet taken a position on either bill. They now face votes in the full Assembly.