Opinion ID: 2576193
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Domestic Partner Act

Text: The current version of the domestic partnership statutes, denominated by the Legislature the California Domestic Partner Rights and Responsibilities Act of 2003 became effective January 1, 2005. (Stats.2003, ch. 421, § 2.) [3] The Domestic Partner Act permits same-sex couples and some opposite-sex couples in which one or both individuals are over the age of 62, who share a common residence, to file a Declaration of Domestic Partnership with the Secretary of State. (§ 297.) Section 297.5 grants domestic partners the same rights, protections, and benefits and imposes upon them the same responsibilities, obligations and duties under law, whether they derive from statutes, administrative regulations, court rules, government policies, common law, or any other provisions or sources of law, as are granted to and imposed upon spouses. (§ 297.5, subd. (a).) These rights and responsibilities are extended to current domestic partners, former domestic partners and surviving domestic partners. (§ 297.5, subds. (a)-(c).) The purpose of the Domestic Partner Act is set forth in uncodified portions of section 297.5, in which the Legislature declares: This act is intended to help California move closer to fulfilling the promises of inalienable rights, liberty, and equality contained in Sections 1 and 7 of Article 1 of the California Constitution by providing all caring and committed couples, regardless of their gender or sexual orientation, the opportunity to obtain essential rights, protections, and benefits and to assume corresponding responsibilities, obligations, and duties and to further the state's interests in promoting stable and lasting family relationships, and protecting Californians from the economic and social consequences of abandonment, separation, the death of loved ones, and other life crises. (Stats.2003, ch. 421, § 1, subd. (a).) The Legislature has found that despite longstanding social and economic discrimination, many lesbian, gay, and bisexual Californians have formed lasting, committed, and caring relationships with persons of the same sex, and that [e]xpanding the rights and creating responsibilities of registered domestic partners would further California's interests in promoting family relationships and protecting family members during life crises, and would reduce discrimination on the bases of sex and sexual orientation in a manner consistent with the requirements of the California Constitution. (Stats.2003, ch. 421, § 1, subd. (b).) Section 15 of the Domestic Partner Act, furthermore, requires that the act be construed liberally in order to secure to eligible couples who register as domestic partners the full range of legal rights, protections and benefits, as well as all of the responsibilities, obligations, and duties to each other, to their children, to third parties and to the state, as the laws of California extend to and impose upon spouses. (Stats.2003, ch. 421, § 15.) Section 297.5 effectuates the legislative intent by using the broadest terms possible to grant to, and impose upon, registered domestic partners the same rights and responsibilities as spouses in specified areas of laws whether they are current, former or surviving domestic partners. For example, pursuant to section 297.5, subdivision (c), a surviving registered domestic partner, [upon] the death of the other partner, is granted all the same rights and is subject to all the same responsibilities, from whatever source in the law, as those granted to and imposed upon a widow or a widower. Similarly, section 297.5, subdivision (d) states: The rights and obligations of registered domestic partners with respect to a child of either of them shall be the same as those of spouses. The rights and obligations of former or surviving registered domestic partners with respect to a child of either of them shall be the same as those of former or surviving spouses. Subdivision (e) requires that, [t]o the extent that provisions of California law adopt, refer to, or rely upon ... federal law, and this reliance on federal law would require domestic partners to be treated differently than spouses, registered domestic partners shall be treated by California law as if federal law recognized a domestic partnership in the same manner as California law. (§ 297.5, subd. (e).) With respect to discrimination, subdivision (f) provides: Registered domestic partners shall have the same rights regarding nondiscrimination as those provided to spouses. (§ 297.5, subd. (f).) Moreover, with one exception pertaining to eligibility for long-term care plans, subdivision (h) prohibits any public agency in California from discriminating against any person or couple on the ground that the person is a registered domestic partner rather than a spouse or that the couple [consists of] registered domestic partners rather than spouses. (§ 297.5, subd. (h).) It is clear from both the language of section 297.5 and the Legislature's explicit statements of intent that a chief goal of the Domestic Partner Act is to equalize the status of registered domestic partners and married couples. It is in light of this intent that we must determine whether the Unruh Act precludes BHCC from granting married couples benefits it denies to persons registered as domestic partners under the Domestic Partner Act. We conclude that the Unruh Act does.