Miami Beach creates broad domestic partner registry

A story published today in the Miami Herald reports that Miami Beach commissioners voted Wednesday to create a broad domestic-partnership registry that gives unmarried couples a range of legal rights while they're in the city -- a measure hailed by gay-rights activists as the most expansive in the state.

Any couple from anywhere in the world can now come to Miami Beach and register as domestic partners, and enjoy the rights that come with that designation in Miami Beach. Among them: the rights to hospital visitation, participation in healthcare decisions and emergency medical notification.

''This ordinance provides more rights and is open to more people than any other in the state, and with it the commission has gone as far as it can within its jurisdiction to recognize all families,'' said Stratton Pollitzer, South Florida director of the gay-rights group Equality Florida.

``It is one of the strongest in the country in terms of benefits and accessibility.''

Unlike the registry in Broward County, which has been considered the state's most progressive, Miami Beach's has no residency or government employment requirement, and it formally recognizes partnerships recorded in other jurisdictions that have registries.

It also provides a few more specific rights than Broward's does, such as the power to make funeral decisions and the right to participate in the education of a partner's child.

Key West also has a partnership registry, though it is much more limited.

''We tried with this ordinance to give domestic partners as many rights as the Constitution would allow us to give,'' said Beach Commissioner Luis Garcia, who sponsored the legislation. ``It's the right thing to do.''

'MODEL' ORDINANCE

City staff studied other registries to glean as many provisions as possible and create what Karen Doering, staff attorney for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, called a ''model'' domestic partnership ordinance.

The legislation, as with most well-crafted domestic partnership ordinances, provides approximately 12 rights, benefits and obligations to partners, while marriage provides an average of 1,600, according to the center.

''Even though this is a very generous registry, its scope is still very limited when compared to marriage,'' Doering said.

Miami Beach's partnership registry is open to heterosexual couples as well as gays and lesbians, and will serve an important role in that community as well, Doering said.

''There are many heterosexual people who by choice or economic need decide not to marry, such as seniors who could lose a pension if they do so,'' she said. ``No matter what happens with the issue of gay marriage, we will still need domestic partnerships.''

Representatives of Miami Beach institutions that will be affected by the ordinance said it was too soon to comment on how it will function.

''Being that this was just passed, we don't yet know how it will fit in with federal and state laws, which can sometimes be preemptive to local law,'' said Lauri Oliva, spokeswoman for Mt. Sinai Medical Center. ``We certainly want to respect the rights of the patient, but our legal counsel hasn't yet analyzed the extent of this new ordinance.''

In Broward County, where the registry has been active since 1999, the hospitals seemed more accustomed to the concept.

Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale allows gay partners to visit each other and make medical decisions on behalf of each other, said hospital spokeswoman Maria Soldani. The hospital doesn't consult Broward County's registry to verify that two people are partners.

PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACT

Those who have availed themselves of the Broward registry say it has had an impact on their lives.

Mark Ketcham, president of the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of South Florida, said he and his longtime domestic partner, Werner Lutz, registered the first day the Broward ordinance made it legal to do so. Since then, they have mostly reserved the county-issued registration card they were given for emergencies.

''We both carry the little card in our pocket so that if we are in accident, each of us can visit each other in the hospital,'' said Ketcham, 42, of Fort Lauderdale.

''It's much more of a psychological improvement,'' he said. ``We now know that we live in a county that recognizes our relationship.''

COMMUNITY ACCOLADES

The Miami Beach commission's creation of the registry is the second action this month that has earned it accolades from gays and lesbians.

On July 7, the commission voted to expand the city's human rights ordinance to ban discrimination against transgendered people. Within the state, only Monroe County and Key West have similar protections in their human rights ordinances.

Both pieces of legislation came about because of the lobbying of advocacy group SAVE Dade, which contacted the commissioners on these and other issues several months ago.

Other organizations, such as Equality Florida and the National Center for Lesbian Rights came in to work on the legislation later.

''The members of this commission are understanding of the challenges facing the gay and lesbian community, and they are more than happy to enact legislation to help that group,'' said Heddy Pena, executive director of SAVE Dade. ``They are keeping the city at the forefront of human rights.''