6-27-15 thiesfeldt proposes to end domestic partnership registry

Fond du Lac State Representative Jeremy Thiesfeldt has called for the end of the Wisconsin’s Domestic Partnership Registry and requests that the repeal be included in the 2015-17 state budget.   The Domestic Partnership Registry was created through a provision in Governor Jim Doyle’s state budget in 2009.  This action allowed limited, legal recognition of same-sex relationships across Wisconsin.  Thiesfeldt says he proposed the change in light of the U.S. Supreme Court decision regarding same sex marriage.    “In light of today’s United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS) decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, there is no justification for Wisconsin’s Domestic Partnership Law since SCOTUS has bowed to public pressure and generated a constitutional right for same-sex marriage.  The Domestic Partnership Law is clearly just ‘marriage lite,’ and has been discriminatory from its inception by excluding heterosexual couples seeking similar legal recognition.”     Thiesfeldt says in a separation or divorce, all married couples have to go through the delineated court system, where experts oversee and address the placement of children, property, finances, etc.  The dissolution of a domestic partnership does not require partners to address these matters.  “Since the Domestic Partnership Law was created in the budget, it is fitting that it should be repealed in the budget.  I am asking the Joint Committee on Finance to take appropriate, timely action through their final budget motion by removing this discriminatory practice that weakens the marriage commitment.  Going forward, there is simply no need to maintain this legal recognition.”