On Sept. 19 Governor Gray Davis made history by signing AB 205, the Domestic Partners Rights and Responsibility Act of 2003, into law. The landmark legislation, authored by Los Angeles Assemblymember Jackie Goldberg, grants same-sex domestic partners nearly all of the state rights, benefits, and responsibilities currently granted only to married spouses. However, the law does not go into effect until Jan. 1, 2005, and if conservative politicians have their way, domestic partners will never get to enjoy those rights.

Following the signing of the bill, State Senator Pete Knight and Assemblymember Ray Haynes filed for a ballot referendum to overturn AB 205. To qualify for a vote, referendum supporters must gather 373,816 signatures by Dec. 21. If successful, the referendum would most likely appear on the ballot during the March 2004 presidential primary election. If that happens, the new domestic partners law will require a majority vote to go into effect.

“Senator Knight’s proposed referendum to take rights away from California families will not succeed,” said Geoffrey Kors, Equality California (EQCA) executive director, in a press release to announce the formation of a campaign to defeat the referendum. “California voters believe that domestic partners and their families should be treated fairly under the law, and we are confident that we will prevail.”

Currently there are more than 22,000 same-sex and senior opposite-sex couples registered as domestic partners in California. If the voters approve the referendum against the Domestic Partners Act, these couples will lose all of their newly granted rights.

Currently, EQCA is working with local GLBT groups throughout the state to build grassroots organizations to educate voters about the importance of domestic partnership rights.

Here in San Diego, AJ Davis-Defeo, the director of the public policy department at The Center, is organizing local volunteers and coordinating efforts with EQCA at the state level.

Volunteers are needed to register voters, work phone banks and go door to door to educate the community at large about the importance of domestic partnership rights. Volunteers can contact AJ Davis-Defeo at (619) 692-2077, ext. 212, for more information.

Currently conservatives are spending thousands of dollars to gather the signatures required to put the referendum on the ballot in March. If the referendum does make the ballot then it will be up to the voters to decide the future of domestic partnership rights.

“We must get out the vote of LGBT and fair-minded folks, or over 22,000 currently registered same-sex and senior different-sex partners will lose the rights granted to them by AB 205,” Davis-Defeo said. “We have not come this far to have our rights stripped away. California legislators supported domestic partnership by passing the most inclusive package of rights and responsibilities to date. Now it is up to the people of California to uphold this important legislation and to vote it into law.”

This is not the first time Knight has sought to deny rights to the GLBT community. In 2000, voters passed the Knight-sponsored Proposition 22, requiring the state of California to refuse to honor marriages between same-sex couples performed in other jurisdictions.

Prior to Davis’ signing of AB 205, Knight declared, “If AB 205 is signed by Governor Davis, the remaining effect of Prop. 22 would be to limit only the word ‘marriage’ to a man and a woman, while same-sex couples otherwise obtain the full legal recognition of spouses. It’s a game of semantics that the courts won’t tolerate, not to mention that it would force the State of California to promote unnatural family units that are not in the best interest of our children.”

Knight has also filed a lawsuit that claims the Domestic Partner Act violates Proposition 22.

“This referendum is an attempt to strip away critical legal protections that should belong to all Californians by pretending that domestic partnership laws equal marriage, which they clearly do not,” Kors stated. “Domestic partnerships do not provide all of the same rights as marriages, are not recognized by the federal government and do not have the same cultural and societal significance. Without question, same-sex couples and their families deserve full equality. but domestic partnerships provide the only legal protections currently available.”

For more information on the battle to stop the referendum against AB 205 visit www.gaylesbiantimes.com for a link to The Center and Equality California’s web sites.