OR Domestic Partnership Law Already Bleeding Inequities
This sort of makes you wonder what other situations a couple may run into in times of crisis. Take a medical emergency. Should we all be prepared with our Declaration of Domestic Partnership Forms to bring to the hospital if something terrible was to happen to our domestically partnered other half?
Imagine a straight married couple having to bring their marriage license to the hospital just for their husband or wife to prove that they are actually just that - their husband of wife.
Picture it... "Oh what? My husband was shot? OK I will be a little late to the hospital, I need to run home to get my marriage certificate."
When Sally Sparks and her partner, Heather Dugas, registered as domestic partners at the Multnomah County Building the day the new state law took effect on February 4, Sparks was overdue with their second child.
"It was a good feeling that [the law] went through and we were going to walk into the hospital as domestic partners," Sparks says.
When their son was born on February 10, Sparks and Dugas made sure to bring their certificate of domestic partnership to the hospital, just in case.
[..]
The law took effect in time for their son's birth, but the women still ran into red tape. Instead of noting Dugas' name on the birth certificate forms -- which had not changed to reflect the new law, and only had spaces for a mother and father -- a clerk at Providence St. Vincent Family Maternity Center handed her a separate form. Marked "For informational purposes only. This is not a legal document," the form has spaces for info on the child, mother, and partner. According to a note from the hospital clerk to Sparks, the form is "supplied to the state to be kept with your son's birth certificate."
Read about the whole debacle over at the Portland Mercury.
Labels: domestic partnership, oregon
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, February 20, 2008 at 4:04 PM.
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ByThis is an interesting contrast to other government agencies that worked quickly to implement the law - for instance, the county clerks in 36 counties who were ready to go bright and early on Feb. 4!
K Fish
By
To clarify—they didn't run into an issue over whether or not they had the certificate with them. Both women told me they weren't asked for proof of domestic partnership.
Not that that makes the situation any better...
By
Hey Amy! Just to make it clear, the faced an inequity and it made me think of the other situations in which us gays could run into other issues - like in a medical emergency.
Are they simply going to just believe a person that says they are their legal domestic partner? Or will they require proof?
By
No, you're totally right on that. It's a huge issue—married couples are never questioned about their proclaimed marital status, but I have a feeling carrying around our DP certificate in my pocketbook is going to come in handy someday.
That's the story I thought I'd find here, actually.
By
So does this mean we need a statement or ruling from the State Attorney General's office to permit both spouses to fill out a birth certificate form for their children...? If so, where is Hardy Myers?
Or is this just a Catholic hospital issue; i.e., would OHSU fill out a birth certificate form just fine?
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