Today is the first day Wisconsin same-sex couples can legally register as domestic partners. Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle signed legislation creating domestic partnerships in the state. According to The Advocate, the partnerships grant property, inheritance, and visitation rights to domestic partners.
Wisconsin is the first Midwestern state to afford legal rights to same-sex partnerships as a result of legislation. Family Action, a conservative group who opposes the legislation, filed a lawsuit last week against the new law. Citing Wisconsin’s 2006 ballot initiative defining marriage as between a man and a woman in their case against the law, Wisconsin Family Council CEO Julaine Appling told the TMJ 4, “The tide is still with us. People still value marriage between a man and a woman. It’s not saying that these relationships between two men or two women are not existing. No one is denying that.”
Couples all over the state traveled to their county clerk’s offices to be among the first to register, reports TwinCities.com. Deborah Monicken and her partner of 25 years were the first couple at the St. Croix County Clerk’s office. She said, “I’ve always felt that Wisconsin would do well by us.”
