ACTION UPDATE: DOMA & Domestic Partnership Bills

From Equality New Mexico:
Two Senate Judiciary Committee hearings are coming up this week:

Senate Bill 340, extending domestic partner health insurance to cover state retirees, was supposed to be heard Saturday and is now scheduled for Monday (today) at 2 PM. 

Senate Bill 597, the "simple" DOMA defining marriage between one man and one woman, and Senate Bill 576, Domestic Partner Benefits, will most likely be heard on Wednesday, March 2.  We'll send out more info as soon as we have it. 

The hearing rooms for both will no doubt again be small, but please contact the Senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee and ask them to vote YES on Senate Bill 340, YES on Senate Bill 576, and NO on Senate Bill 597.  Besides asking them all to vote YES on SB 340, here are some more specific messages to pass along.  Additional talking points are below.  Thanks!!

Senator Cisco McSorley, Democrat, Senate Judiciary Committee Chair, District 16, Bernalillo County (Albuquerque)  cisco.mcsorley@nmlegis.gov

"Thank you for being a champion for our families."

Senator Richard C. Martinez, Democrat, Senate Judiciary Committee Vice Chair,  Los Alamos, Rio Arriba & Santa Fe Counties (Espanola), richardc.martinez@nmlegis.gov , 986-4389

"DOMA hurts gay families.  Please oppose SB 597.  Please support SB 576, Domestic Partner Benefits."

Senator Rod Adair, Republican, District 33, Chaves & Lincoln Counties (Roswell) radair@dfn.com, 986-4385

"DOMA hurt gay families.  Please oppose SB 597.  Please support SB 576, Domestic Partner Benefits."

Senator Kent L. Cravens, Republican, District 21, Bernalillo & Sandoval Counties (Albuquerque) klcravens@alphagraphics.com, 986-4391

"DOMA hurt gay families.  Please oppose SB 597.  Please support SB 576, Domestic Partner Benefits."

Senator John T.L. Grubesic, Democrat, District 25 Santa Fe County (Santa Fe) john.grubesic@nmlegis.gov,  986-4260

"Thank you for being a champion for our families."

Senator Clinton D. Harden, Republican, District 7, Colfax, Curry, Harding, Quay, San Miguel, Taos & Union Counties (Clovis) charden@theosogroup.com, 986-4369

"DOMA hurt gay families.  Please oppose SB 597.  Please support SB 576, Domestic Partner Benefits."

Senator Linda M. Lopez, Democrat, District 11, Bernalillo County (Albuquerque) 986-4737

"Thank you for being a champion for our families."

Senator William H. Payne, Republican, District 20, Bernalillo County (Albuquerque)  william.payne@nmlegis.gov, 986-4276

"DOMA hurt gay families.  Please oppose SB 597.  Please support SB 576, Domestic Partner Benefits."

Senator Lidio G. Rainaldi, Democrat, District 4, Cibola & McKinley Counties (Gallup) 986-4310

"DOMA hurts gay families.  Please oppose SB 597.  Please support SB 576, Domestic Partner Benefits."

Senator Michael S. Sanchez, Democrat, District 29, Valencia County (Belen) senatormssanchez@aol.com,  986-4727

"Thank you for your support.  Please encourage all Democrats to do the right thing: oppose SB 597 and support SB 576.  DOMA=Discrimination."   

Talking Points:

On February 1, the New Mexico State Senate introduced a "simple DOMA" (Defense of Marriage Act) that aims to insert the phrase "between a man and a woman" into the current NM statute defining marriage as a "civil contract."

SB 597 discriminates and denigrates:  Marriage is state-regulated body of civil law designed to protect couples and families.  It is a civil right, not a heterosexual privilege. 

SB 597 is anti-equality and anti-gay:  SB 597 would codify second-class citizenship for all gay, lesbian, and bisexual New Mexicans. 

SB 597 would be the first explicitly anti-gay law in NM.

SB 597 is anti-family:  The 2000 census reported one in three New Mexico lesbian households and one in four gay-male households have children under 18 living at home.  There are few rights more basic than the right to love, bond, and create family.  There are few tasks more basic to government than to protect loving, committed families.

SB 597 is bad business:  Businesses value tolerance in their work states and work places.  (The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Every Day Life, Richard Florida, Basic Books, 2002). "Diversity and quality of life" brought THE GAP to New Mexico (ABQ) over Texas (El Paso). Reports suggest treatment of gays were a large factor ("Corporate Doubles and El Paso," Albuquerque Journal, Business Outlook, April 23, 2001).

SB 597 is expensive: 18 other states in the US are about to spend millions of dollars in court deciding the legality of their "defense of marriage acts" (DOMAs). Why would New Mexico want to be 19th, spend a million dollars, and find out what every other state will pay to find out: DOMAs are unconstitutional?

SB 597 is unconstitutional:  It violates the NM Human Rights Act and the New Mexico constitution's guarantees of equal protection under the law.

SB 597 is NOT about marriage:  It's about not wanting gay New Mexicans to have rights, to be equal citizens.  Many of the same people who voted against civil rights for gay people will likely vote in favor of DOMA.

SB 597 is politically dangerous for legislators who vote against marriage equality: 94% of state legislators across the country who voted against discriminatory marriage bills were re-elected in November 2004. This re-election rate is higher than average for all state legislators (90% for House incumbents, 92% for Senate incumbents).

SB 597 violates separation of church and state:  No civil marriage laws can or will compel any religious organization to perform same-gender marriage ceremonies.  SB 597, however, does impose a religious definition of marriage on an entire body of civil law.  (Note: a significant number of religious denominations do perform same-gender unions, so the definition of religious marriage differs, even within a religious context.)

Support SB 576 - Domestic Partner Rights & Responsibilities Act
Sponsored by Senator Cisco McSorley

SB 576 creates a licensing process for Domestic Partners that requires the submission of an affidavit to the County Clerk followed by the recording of a Certificate of Domestic Partnership.

Right now, unmarried couples have no legal recognition for their relationships under NM law.  This creates many hardships for gay, lesbian, and heterosexual unmarried couples and families.

No matter how much money unmarried couples spend on legal agreements like wills and powers of attorney to protect each other and their children, they cannot duplicate many of the rights and protections that NM offers to couples who can marry.

SB 576 is not marriage, but it goes a long way to protect children and families from unnecessary hardship.

SB 576 in brief:
SB 576 creates a system of Domestic Partnerships for any two unmarried adults, gay or not gay.  This could include senior citizens or disabled people who cannot get married to each other because one or the other would lose their social security or other benefits.

A domestic partnership is not a marriage and a domestic partner is not a spouse.

Domestic Partnership confers all the NM state (no federal) rights, benefits, protections, responsibilities and obligations of New Mexico civil marriage in the areas of...
Death & Inheritance
Insurance benefits
Health care decision-making
Family Relationship
Dissolution of a Domestic Partnership

People wishing to become Domestic Partners will go to any County Clerk and file Parties must live together or be going to live together

Be over 18
Capable of consent
Not married to anyone else and not related by blood
Pay $25

County Clerks will send a Domestic Partnership License to the couple, which must be filled out and returned for recording within 90 days.  A recorded Domestic Partnership License will be mailed to the partners after being filed by the clerk.