Defining Domestic Partners

Rep. Franke Wilmer (D – Bozeman) introduced House Bill 590 short titled “Define domestic partners and establish benefits.” This bill, heard Friday in the State Administration committee, would create a domestic partner registry, providing a procedure for establishing, recording, and terminating domestic partnerships. Currently about “1 in 10 people in committed relationships are denied legal rights due to domestic partners not being recognized” Rep. Wilmer said in her opening comments.

HB 590 would define domestic partnerships as two unmarried adults who have entered into long-term arrangements and that evidence a commitment to remain responsible indefinitely for each other’s welfare. This bill will help to clarify legal rights to domestic partners, including insurance rights, victim’s compensation rights, laws relating to emergency and non-emergency medical care, tax laws, and rights of a surviving spouse.

There were many proponents to this bill including the many private citizens, the University of Montana Lambda Alliance, the Montana Women’s Lobby, the Montana Human Rights Network, the Montana University Women, and the ACLU.

Alicia Miller, a private citizen from Livingston stated simply that this bill “is about fairness and equality.” Mr. Crichton from the ACLU said that this bill doesn’t focus on the religious setting, instead this is about “how two people relate to the state and the benefits provided under law to that relationship.” The Women’s lobby stated that this bill is about providing “adults in the state of Montana as many legal options as possible.”

Many of the proponents to the bill listed cases of elderly couples in committed relationships, who have been married in the past and not wanting to re-marry because of the complexities of merging finances and wills to their children. Under current law they aren’t granted medical care rights, or survivor rights without the power of an attorney. This bill will help to clarify many of these types of cases and grant them the same legal rights that they would have if they were married.