Talk:Domestic partnership

Re Article Merger Suggestion: The Terms "Domestic Partnership", "Civil Union," "Registered Partnership," etc., Are Problematic
Editors of this article please TAKE NOTE: There are TWO GENRES of "domestic partnership" - state and municipal/county.

The municipal/county level domestic partnership, where it exists, offers extremely limited benefits to the parties and there is no guarantee the status will be recognized outside of the jurisdiction in which the status are contracted.

The state level domestic partnership is, in fact, "Civil Union" under the name "Domestic Partnership."

History: Denmark was the first jurisdiction to create "Registered Partnership." The rest of Scandinavia, and the Netherlands, also used the term "Registered Partnership" - but France opted for the term "Pacte Civile de Solidarite," which got the 'aka' "Union Civile" - and that's the term that Vermont chose to borrow in 2000, translating it to English, when it passed legislation creating Civil Union and Reciprocal Beneficiaries Relationship.

When Hawaii opted to create Civil Union, that state used the term "Reciprocal Beneficiaries Relationship." An Hawaiian RBR was absolutely *nothing* like a Vermont RBR; it was equivalent to a Vermont Civil Union.

In California, there is even more confusion. Many municipalities and counties in California already had local "Domestic Partnership" ordinances when California passed its own Civil Union legislation, using the term "Domestic Partnership." The existing municipal/county DP ordinances were grandfathered, with the result that parts of California have *both* types of Domestic Partnership, which causes some confusion. Example: A young opposite-sex couple came into H&R Block (where I worked at the time) and wanted to file a joint return as Domestic Partners. Neither of them was age 62 or older as the law requires for opposite-sex domestic partnership at the *state* level, so the tax professional who attended to them asked some questions and discovered they had gotten a *San Francisco* domestic partnership; which, he regretfully had to inform them, did not entitle them to file a joint tax return.

The salient point being that there *does* need to be an article called "Domestic Partnership," but it needs to note that the term "Domestic Partnership" is sometimes used to mean "Civil Union"; for which they will need to see that article, while the "Domestic Partnership" article focuses solely on the original municipal version of domestic partnership, with extremely limited benefits and no inter-jurisdictional portability. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.115.74.132 (talk) 19:54, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

Misleading Information about Equal Standing with Marriage
While it may be true that domestic partnerships offer the same financial benefits and tax-related benefits to couples, I don't think it's fair to say that domestic partnerships "are equivalent to marriage in all but the title."

Many same-sex couples still have trouble that married couples would not have. For example, if one partner is in the hospital, the other one is not allowed to visit on the basis of "Family Only." Only a spouse of MARRIAGE is allowed in the room.

They are equal financially, maybe, but certainly not emotionally. This should at least be noted, for emotional issues carry a lot of weight and you cannot deny their importance in a relationship, whether it be homosexual or heterosexual.

Separate but Equal institutions are never equal. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.12.37.26 (talk) 04:02, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

Domestic Partnerships between Opposite Sexes in Maine
My boyfriend and I live in New Jersey. I am a female 47 years old and he is male 53 years old. We are both divorced and have been living together for 6 years now. We would like to know if we can apply for domestic partnership in Maine. I appreciate your prompt response.

Thanks, Marissa

Needs work - not generic enough
The article appears to skew towards legal issues surrounding same-sex relationships. It'd be much better if it was more generic then address the complications with same-sex recognition since there's already an article about same sex marriage/unions. At the moment, domestic partnerships, civil unions and same sex marriage all read exactly the same. - Htra0497 12:54, 8 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Agreed, seven years later. The introduction of this article seems to be legitimately about domestic partnerships while the article itself is an excessively detailed compendium of US same-sex union laws that are repeated ad nauseum in articles specifically about those subjects. Domestic partnership in the United States is almost an exact duplication of this article, and thus shares the problem.  Slow Graffiti (talk) 19:52, 31 July 2014 (UTC)

Domestic Partnerships in Boston, Massachusetts
There are Domestic Partnerships recognized in Boston, Massachusetts. This is provided through municipal ordinance: City of Boston Municipal Code Chapter XII § 9a Protection of Families.

Should this be mentioned in the article? mdkarazim (talk) 19:50, 11 March 2008 (UTC)


 * I haven't heard any feedback, so I went ahead with changing the article to show that there are also Domestic Partnerships available in certain Massachusetts municipalities in addition to the marriages already available state-wide. I included the cities of Cambridge and Boston with appropriate citations.  I believe there are other municipalities that also have these ordinances, but because I am not aware of them, I did not add them.  Please feel free to add additional municipalities.  MDKarażim (talk) 18:17, 28 April 2008 (UTC)

Edit buttons?
Why is there a bar across the bottom of the states that says [Edit] a bunch of times? Misty Pony 1994 21:18, 29 August 2010 (UTC)

New Zealand / Civil unions
I came here to read about de facto partnerships - at the top of the article it clearly says that domestic partnerships are when there is recognition of cohabitation in the absence of marriage or civil unions, and yet in the New Zealand section there's just a link to the article about civil unions, which is not the same thing. Also, a lot of this article seems to be about same-sex partnerships which doesn't particularly seem to be the most important thing about this subject. 111.69.238.189 (talk) 11:16, 25 November 2011 (UTC)

Same-sex union map
Now that there's a same-sex union map, the Samesex_marriage_in_USA.svg map is kind of redundant. --Prcc27 (talk) 21:40, 30 June 2014 (UTC)
 * We should remove it. --Prcc27 (talk) 21:41, 30 June 2014 (UTC)

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External links modified
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Does not reflect a world view
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