Domestic Partnership

(Phoenix, September 8, 2009) — Lambda Legal is profoundly concerned and disturbed by a move by Arizona lawmakers on Friday to strip health benefits from the domestic partners of state employees.

State legislators for months had taken aim at the equal benefits plan approved last year by former Governor Janet Napolitano, now Department of Homeland Security Secretary. On Friday, current Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed a budget bill with the provision revoking the health insurance coverage for domestic partners.

(Santa Ana, Calif., April 29, 2008)—The California Court of Appeal heard oral arguments today in the appeal of an Orange County man who believed his domestic partnership was registered with the state, only to discover upon separation that his partner never mailed the form.

(Sacramento, October 15, 2007) — Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday signed legislation that will provide relief to domestic partners who paid unexpected, discriminatory property taxes prior to Jan. 1, 2006.

The Fair and Equal Taxation for Surviving Partners Act, authored by Sen. Christine Kehoe, D-San Diego, drafted by Lambda Legal, and sponsored by Equality California, ends tax increases for domestic partners who separated or lost a partner before a 2006 law went into effect protecting them against unfair property reassessments.

(San Francisco, CA, October 3, 2007) — In a resounding victory, a California Court of Appeal unanimously affirmed the validity of a Board of Equalization rule that protects domestic partners from increased property taxes when one of the partners dies and the other inherits the couple's home.  California law has long provided this protection for surviving heterosexual spouses.     

(Bellevue, WA, May 14, 2007) - The union representing Bellevue city firefighters has joined a Lambda Legal letter in support of family benefits for City workers with domestic partners. Lambda Legal delivered the letter to Mayor Grant Degginer and members of the Bellevue City Council this morning.

(Bellevue, WA, May 14, 2007) — The union representing Bellevue city firefighters has joined a Lambda Legal letter in support of family benefits for City workers with domestic partners. Lambda Legal delivered the letter to Mayor Grant Degginer and members of the Bellevue City Council this morning.

(Bellevue, WA, April 17, 2007) — Lambda Legal filed suit today in Superior Court for King County against the City of Bellevue, Washington for denying equal compensation to its lesbian and gay employees who seek family employment benefits for their same-sex partners.

SAN FRANCISCO — In a brief filed today with the California Supreme Court, attorneys representing same-sex couples, Equality California, and Our Family Coalition urged the court to strike down as unconstitutional a law that bars same-sex couples from marriage. The couples and organizations are represented by lead counsel the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), Lambda Legal, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Heller Ehrman LLP, and the Law Office of David C. Codell.

(Santa Ana, CA, March 28, 2007) — Lambda Legal filed papers today in the California Court of Appeal, 4th District, 3rd Division, seeking the same protections for domestic partners who thought their relationships were registered with the state but were not as California family law provides to people who believed they were married but were not.

(Springfield, Illinois, March 21, 2007) — In reaction to the Illinois House Human Services Committee’s passage of H.B. 1826, The Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act, to the full House for a vote, Lambda Legal issued the following statement from Jim Bennett, Regional Director of Lambda Legal’s Midwest Regional Office in Chicago: