WA gov. signs domestic partnership law

Bay Area Reporter
April 26, 2007

Evan Wolfson said domestic partnerships such as in California and Washington are an important "first step" toward marriage equality. But he said both contain aspects that are "diminishing" of their meaning to gay couples. Both, he noted, have very limited benefits hospital visitation, authorizing autopsies, and inheritance rights when there is no will. Both also allow seniors to register as domestic partnerships, conveying an impression that the law is not so much to recognize same-sex couples as to handle some legal issues for pairs of people who live together and share expenses.
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