Domestic Partnership News Archive
November 07 - November 13, 2000

November 13, 2000

BEST Consulting announces benefits for domestic partners

A story released today by PRNewswire reports that BEST Consulting will give domestic partnership benefits to eligible employees effective January 1, 2001.

Eligible domestic partners and eligible dependants of an employee's domestic partner may join the company's  medical plan, dental plan, and vision plan.

These benefits will extend to employees with domestic partners of the same sex or of the opposite sex.

Recognized as one of the fastest growing high tech firms in the Western United States, BEST offices are strategically located in major cities throughout 10 states. BEST is headquartered in (Kirkland) Seattle, WA with over 1,000 Information Technology Consultants company wide who deliver state-of-the-art technology solutions to clients.

November 10, 2000

Pennsylvania suspends co-parent adoptions by same-sex couples

A story published today in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that a Pennsylvania Superior Court this week prohibited adoptions by gay and lesbian and other unmarried couples, suspending a practice that has been in place in Allegheny County and 13 other Pennsylvania counties for years.

A six-member majority of the appeals court judges said that unmarried couples may not adopt under terms of the state's adoption law.

A three-member minority wrote that the decision misinterprets the adoption law in a way that injures children who would benefit from having two legal parents.

It is a heartbreaking decision, said lawyers who represent gay and lesbian couples. Eileen Yacknin, an attorney whose partner adopted Yacknin's two children, said the piece of paper was important to their children. "Our daughters are 9 and 6. It is an extreme source of comfort to them that they have been adopted."

Two same-sex couples, one from Erie County and one from Lancaster County, whose denied adoptions led to the appeal, will now take their cases to the state Supreme Court. They have the support of 75 organizations including the Support Center for Child Advocates in Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Woman's Law Project.

In the meantime, however, adoptions by unmarried couples no longer will be permitted. The ruling does not apply to adoptions that already have taken place. The judges in 14 counties who had sanctioned at least 100 adoptions must abide by the decision of the Superior Court.

At least 20 other states permit adoptions by gay and lesbian couples. And the decision by Pennsylvania's appeals court goes against the trend to permit such adoptions, according to Christine Biancheria, of Biancheria, Eriksen, Maliver & Angell, Downtown. Biancheria served as co-counsel, arguing that the state law does not deny gays and lesbians the right to adopt.

In the Superior Court opinion, the majority wrote that the decision was based on its interpretation of state law, not on whether the couples were gay or lesbian. "The court does not make a policy decision that [the appellants are] ineligible to adopt because of appellants' sexual orientation nor does this court base its decision on appellant's sexual orientation."

In addition, the court wrote, "It is for the legislature, not the courts, to determine whether same-sex adoptions are permissible."

It is possible that the legislature could act on that issue. A committee of the Joint State Government Commission has been studying the state's adoption law for three years and is expected to issue its final recommendations for changes to the legislature by February.

Dave Hostetter, chief counsel for the commission, said yesterday he could not disclose whether the proposal would specifically permit adoption by gay and lesbian couples because the final report has not been approved by the committee.

But, he said, "One of the goals of the committee was to remove obstacles in the path of people who wanted to adopt."

Superior Court Judge Justin M. Johnson wrote in a dissenting opinion, "Our court's decision today, in effect, will deny hundreds of other children throughout our Commonwealth the legal benefits of parenthood.

"Regrettably," he wrote, "the majority turns a blind eye to the children's interests by choosing to ignore the reality of non-traditional families."

German lawmakers approve a same-sex partner bill

A story published today by the Associated Press reports that after a sharp debate over what conservatives branded an ``attack on family and society,'' German lawmakers took a first step Friday toward giving legal recognition to gay couples.

Lawmakers from the governing Social Democrats and Greens used their majority in the lower house to push through legal changes which may give gay and lesbian couples the right to sign ``life partnerships'' by the middle of next year.

The changes would allow same-sex couples to exchange vows at local government offices and require a court decision for divorce. Same-sex couples would also receive rights given heterosexual spouses in inheritance and health insurance.

Conservatives, who have denounced the plan as ``Marriage Light,'' could scuttle parts of the bill when it reaches the upper house of parliament, and are weighing whether to ask the country's highest court to rule the plan unlawful.

The German vote came more than a decade after Denmark became the first country to give homosexual couples legal status in 1989. Others including France and Norway introduced similar laws during the 1990s.

November 9, 2000

Nebraska voters reject domestic partner rights

A story published today in the Advocate reports that a ballot measure in Nebraska that prohibits state recognition of domestic partnership rights won in a landslide, with 70% of voters supporting the measure.

Some 450,073 votes were cast in favor of the ban, with 189,555 opposing it.  The measure also prohibits state recognition of same-sex marriages or civil unions entered into in other states.

Nevada voters approved a prohibition of same-sex marriages, with 412,654 voters favored the ballot measure, while 180,057 opposed it.  The Nevada proposal was silent on the issue of domestic partnership rights.

French version of domestic partnership is popular

A story published recently in Rex Wockner's International News reports that more than 46,000 couples have registered under France's Civil Solidarity Pact law since it took effect in November 1999.

Officials estimate that 30 to 50 percent of the registrations are between heterosexual unmarried couples, with same-sex couples making up the rest of the registrations.

Registered partners acquire marriage rights and obligations in areas such as income tax, inheritance, housing, immigration, health benefits, job transfers, synchronized vacation time, responsibility for debts, and social welfare. The law does not grant marriage rights in the areas of parental rights, adoption or medically assisted procreation.

Polls show that 70 percent of the French population supports the law.