Some people have weddings...

Jamie Haskins: "Some people have weddings. We have a $50 check to the Secretary of State."

A week and a half ago, we printed out the "Declaration of State Registered Domestic Partnership" for the state of Washington. We took it into our new bank (where we have a joint account, no problem, no questions asked, no one wondering if we were sisters). And the super-nice lady sitting at the desk notarized our paperwork. We dropped it into the mailbox in front of Safeway on that fateful day, June 29, 2009. And then last Friday there arrived a package for us in the mail from the Secretary of State.

"Congratulations!" the form letter from Sam Reed greeted us. Enclosed were two certificates proving our partnership and two drivers license size cards to keep in our wallets. The letter reminded us that our partnership may not be recognized everywhere and these cards are to prove our legal rights in Washington.

Unfortunately, there's a nasty movement going on right now in our fair Evergreen state that has put a 2009 law signed by Governor Christine Gregoire on hold. This most recent law expanded domestic partnership rights and has been called the "everything but marriage" law. However, an ugly, hateful group is attempting to get enough signatures to put Referendum 71 on the November ballot to block this legislation. Pending this disdainful act, the full implementation of the expanded domestic partnership law is on hold. Fortunately, domestic partnership laws passed in 2007 and 2008 are still in full effect. Yay, Washington!

Here are some of the benefits (granted without question to every married heterosexual couple, an some non-married couples) that we now have by law:

• Participation in medical care decisions including access in critical medical situations. In fact, to ensure this will happen, you can look up registered couples on the web site: online registration look-up. If you type me or Jamie in, our partnership is there officially for all to see.
  
• Some healthcare benefits depending on the employer.
  
• Access to medical information.
  
• Community property rights for partners.
• Organ donation decisions.
• The administration of a deceased partner's estate.
• Recognition as a domestic partner on a deceased partner's death certificate.
• The ability to sue for wrongful death of a partner.
• The right to inherit property from a partner and to administer the partner's estate in the absence of a will.

So it's not perfect. We still have no federal benefits - no tax breaks and stuff like that. But it's way better than Kansas, Tennessee, or Florida.

The government has a lovely, user-friendly page describing the details: http://www.secstate.wa.gov/corps/domesticpartnerships/.