Lambda Legal aims to join fight on behalf of domestic partnerships

9/22/2009

"A group of Wisconsin same-sex couples and a national gay-rights legal group is asking to be allowed to be part of a challenge to the creation of Wisconsin’s state’s new domestic partnership program.

"Lambda Legal, which advocates for civil rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people, is asking the state Supreme Court to allow it to intervene on behalf of Fair Wisconsin, which is defending the domestic partnerships established in the budget Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle signed in July.

"...Supporters of Wisconsin’s ban on same-sex marriage and civil unions has asked the state Supreme Court to declare the system of recognizing domestic partnerships unconstitutional, saying it too closely resembles marriage.

"...'To suggest that these few protections granted to same-sex couples and their families resemble the much revered status of marriage is preposterous,' Christopher Clark, senior staff attorney in Lambda Legal’s midwest office, said in a statement. 'The domestic partnership law and the constitutional amendment barring same-sex couples from marriage are not in conflict with each other.'"

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