By Brendan O'Brien
MILWAUKEE, Dec 21 (Reuters) - An appeals court ruled on
Friday that Wisconsin's same sex domestic partnership registry
does not violate an amendment to the state constitution banning
gay marriage.
The registry gives same-sex couples limited rights and
benefits.
"Domestic partnerships carry with them substantially fewer
rights and obligations than those enjoyed by and imposed on
married couples," the three-judge Wisconsin panel wrote in its
ruling.
The registry gives the right to hospital visits, family
medical leave to care for a stricken partner, health benefits
under a partner's insurance, and the right to inherit assets
when a partner dies.
While the state's Department of Health Services continues to
administer the registry, Governor Scott Walker and Attorney
General J.B. Van Hollen, both Republicans, have refused to
defend it in court, claiming it is unconstitutional.
The registry, created in 2009 under Democratic Governor Jim
Doyle, has more than 2,000 couples on it, according to Fair
Wisconsin, a gay-rights organization based in Madison.
"We fought off this ugly attack against the rights and
protections currently available to same-sex couples and their
families in Wisconsin - a sweet holiday present to loving
couples and families," said Christopher Clark, an attorney with
Lambda Legal, a national group that advocates for gays and
lesbians.
In 2006, Wisconsin voters approved a referendum to add an
amendment to the state constitution prohibiting gay marriage.
Wisconsin Family Action, an anti-gay rights group, argued in a
2010 lawsuit that the registry violated the amendment because it
resembles a marriage under state law.
"The people of Wisconsin have strongly affirmed the
lifelong, faithful union of a man and a woman as the fundamental
building block of civilization," said Julaine Appling, president
of Wisconsin Family Action, in a statement.
The case was brought to the Court of Appeals after a Dane
County judge ruled against the Wisconsin Family Action lawsuit
in June 2011.
The U.S. Supreme Court announced earlier this month it will
hear gay marriage cases for the first time as gay rights
continues to be a politically charged topic through the United
States.
Same-sex marriage is prohibited in 31 states while nine
states and Washington D.C. have legalized it, including three by
referendum in the November election.
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