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Loading ...Wis. same-sex couples sign up as domestic partners
08.04.2009 9:00am EDT
(Madison, Wis.) Same-sex couples in Wisconsin have started signing up for the state’s new domestic partnership registry.
Monday was their first chance to sign up and obtain dozens of the same legal protections as spouses.Fifty-six-year-old Janice Czyscon (SIZE’-kon) and her partner of 29 years, 57-year-old Crystal Hyslop, arrived at the Dane County offices in Madison at 5:12 a.m. and waited in the rain until the doors opened.
Wisconsin is the first Midwestern state to enact protections for same-sex couples through legislation. Gov. Jim Doyle proposed the plan, and the Democratic-controlled Legislature approved it in the state budget.
Some who want the law invalidated say it conflicts with the state’s constitutional ban on gay marriage.
Oh, yeah to Janice and Crystal…and many many others.
FYI: See this piece on deciding whether or not to register as a ‘couple/family’ on the 2010 census.
http://tinyurl.com/m3sop7
A step in the right direction
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Make sure you read the “rights and responsibilities” section of the plan/bill. We have some crazy “small print” here in California, as I point out in my blog. http://twistedpride.blogspot.com
Congratulations to Janice and Crystal, and congratulations to Wisconsin for being the first Midwestern state to begin to emerge from a pretty dark time. For those who don’t know or haven’t noticed, almost every Great Lakes state was taken over by the right wing of the GOP, leaving us with some amazingly antigay laws. Ohio and Michigan are two of the worst, though you wouldn’t know it to be in Ann Arbor, Cleveland or Columbus. Thank you Gov. Doyle and Wisconsin Dems for taking the first step in our region’s recovery from legislated discrimination.