House Bill 603: Domestic Partner Rights and Responsibilities Act Introduced

From Equality New Mexico:

Yesterday afternoon, Representative Mimi Stewart (D-Albuquerque), pictured left, introduced House Bill 603: Domestic Partner Rights and Responsibilities Act, on the House floor. This legislation would create a process by which any two adults in a committed relationship, fitting specific criteria would be able to register as domestic partners. Registering as domestic partners would create a series of rights and protections currently unavailable to unmarried couples.

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The Domestic Partner Rights and Responsibilities Act would allow couples registering as domestic partners to have access to many of the benefits and protections currently available to married couples on the state level. These include:access to basic health coverage, family leave, presumption of parentage, decision making upon incapacity, and issues related to assuring that the person with whom you live and love is protected should you die.

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There are over 1400 state and federal rights and benefits that flow from marriage, most of which will not be available to domestic partners. But right now, lesbian and gay couples, and many of our senior New Mexico citizens are without a safety net for access to basic protections. This legislation would provide some of these basic rights and protections. EQNM believes in full equality for all New Mexicans, and continues to pursue full civil marriage rights for all. At this time, we are working to pass legislation to provide the most possible protections to New Mexican families.

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House Bill 603 has been assigned to the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee. EQNM will update information as hearings are scheduled.

Senate Bill 502:  An Act to Amend the Retiree Health Care Act
Senator John Grubesic (D- Santa Fe), pictured left, has introduced Senate Bill 502. This bill would amend the Retiree Health Care Act to allow domestic partners of state employees to maintain their health insurance after their state employee partner retires. The Bill is currently assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Equality New Mexico will update information when the first committee hearing is scheduled so that you may contact the members of the committee to urge them to support this important bill.