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Written by Louis Weisberg, Staff writer
Oct 6, 2010
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a motion in Dane County circuit court on Oct. 1 to allow five same-sex couples to participate for the defense in a lawsuit challenging Wisconsin’s domestic partnership registry. The suit, filed by a Christian right group, contends the registry grants same-sex couples the same status as marriage, which is barred by an amendment to the Wisconsin Constitution.
”Same-sex couples who have registered as domestic partners have the most at stake in this lawsuit and deserve to be heard,” said John Knight, staff attorney with the ACLU Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Project. “Only those directly affected by the law know what it’s like to worry about not being able to visit a partner in the hospital or to be left with nothing when a partner dies without a will.”
The Wisconsin Supreme Court refused a request by board members of Wisconsin Family Action to strike down the domestic partner law as unconstitutional. The case, Appling v. Doyle, was re-filed in the circuit court, where both sides will be able to have a trial and present evidence to support their cases.
Lambda Legal also filed court papers to intervene in the case on behalf of Fair Wisconsin and five member couples, saying that domestic partnerships and marriages are not “substantially similar.”
Nearly 1,500 couples have filed as domestic partners since the registry went into effect in 2009. It’s estimated that there are 15,000 same-sex couples living in the state.
http://www.aclu.org/lgbt-rights/appling-v-doyle-case-profile
