A New Name for Domestic Partnerships in Salt Lake City

Timothy Kincaid

March 7th, 2008

I’m often bemused at the lengths heterosexual legislators will go in order to make gay couple aware that they are inferior. Even many of those whose sense of fairness leaves them inclined to offer equality under the law seem compelled to say, “But don’t call it marriage. It isn’t marriage.”

So on the west coast (and Maine) you have Domestic Partnerships. And on the east coast you have Civil Unions. In between you have, well, I’ll just stop there and be polite.

We told you back in January that Ralph Becker, the mayor of Salt Lake City, wanted to set up a Domestic Partnership registry. While offering no state or federal benefits, it would help couples prove relationships when seeking insurance and other benefits offered by private-sector employers.

The city counsel passed his plan unanimously.

Well this was just too much for Utah’s legislature. They just couldn’t have gay couples being recognized in Utah, it was too much like gay marriage. Eeeeek.

But they’ve finally found a solution: the registry can be set up and couples can seek to protect their families in this limited way… they just can’t be called “Domestic Partnerships.”

I kid you not.

So in the spirit of cooperation, I offer the following substitute names for the registry:

The Really Really Not Gay Couple Registry,

The We Care More About Pandering to the Right Wing than We Do About Helping Citizens Registry, or

The It Ain’t Marriage Registry.

I think any one of those should pass the scrutiny of the state.

Michael

March 7th, 2008

I’m confused. Were they not domestic partnerships in the first place?

Michael

March 7th, 2008

I amend my previous comment—were they not called domestic partnerships in the first place?

Timothy Kincaid

March 7th, 2008

Michael,

They were passed by the city counsel as Domestic Partnerships. But the state has now insisted on a name change.

howller

March 7th, 2008

Nice to see the mayor fighting to secure a few benefits to non-traditional families. But the resulting brouhaha is a total embarrassment to the state of Utah!

Jim Burroway

March 7th, 2008

“The partnership that dares not speak its name”

Elise

March 7th, 2008

“But they’ve finally found a solution: the registry can be set up and couples can seek to protect their families in this limited way… they just can be called “Domestic Partnerships”.”

I think that should be “they just can*not* be called Domestic Partnerships.” Hence Michael’s (and my) initial confusion.

Jim Burroway

March 7th, 2008

Elise, that’s correct. It was a typo, which has been corrected.

Willie Hewes

March 8th, 2008

This is great. It’s going to be like a race backwards through language. Marriage is too scary a word, so we invented Domestic Partnerships. But that’s grown as a concept too close to marriage, so we have to take a step further down again.

Where does it end? Rediculous.

Tara

March 8th, 2008

“Partnership that dare not speak its name” is good. But why not just go all the way:

“Evil sodomite with another evil sodomite registry so Satan will know who to take”!

cowboy

March 12th, 2008

It can be explained quite easily. Anything gay is forbidden in Utah. Gay marriage is often interchangeable with the terms: domestic-partner/benefits/registry. “Domestic” is a reserved word in the lexicon at Utah Capitol for something entirely different.

Thus, in a closed-door backroom negotiation meeting in the newly renovated Capitol just a couple of blocks from the Mormon HQ building they struck a deal. “They” being: the moderate conservatives and the ultra-fanatical orthodox religious Eagle-Forum people.

So, you see, even a moderate in Utah is considered a [whisper this next word:] liberal! (Or Librul in the local vernacular.)

Not that you will see any of those moderate conservatives in the Pride Parade this coming June. Only those agents of satan, (aka Democrats) will be seen riding in the Pride parade groveling for votes.

Still, I guess, we should be grateful to the moderates. (sigh)

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