Domestic partnership in the United States

Couples who live in localities without civil unions or domestic partnerships may voluntarily enter into a private, informal domestic partnership agreement, specifying their mutual obligations; however, this involves drawing up a number of separate legal documents, including wills, power of attorney, healthcare directives, child custody agreements, etc., and is best done with the guidance of a local attorney.

Without governmental enforcement of the agreement, all such provisions of the partnership may be ignored by hospitals, healthcare professionals, or other persons, and may be held invalid by state courts in disputes over child custody or over a deceased partner's estate.

However, the terminology is still evolving; the exact level of rights and responsibilities of domestic partnership depends on the particular law of a given jurisdiction.

Since 1999, the West Coast states of California, Oregon, Washington, and Nevada have all passed domestic partnership statutes; in contrast, most legislatures in the New England region and New Jersey have preferred the term civil unions.

[1] According to data from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, the majority of Fortune 500 companies provided benefits to same-sex partners of employees as of June 2006.

The Human Rights Campaign Foundation offers best practices on how to implement them (see: Domestic partner benefits Archived October 24, 2008, at the Wayback Machine).

IRS Regulation Section 1.61-21(b)(1) generally requires that the imputed value of the benefit be considered taxable income.

[9] State employees have received similar benefits under executive orders of the Governor and have been given priority over bodily remains of Domestic Partner as enacted into law by Gov.

[12][13] The first city to offer domestic partnerships in Ohio was Cleveland Heights in 2003, which was passed by voter referendum.

The Village of Oak Park, Illinois in October 1997 began offering a domestic partnership registry for same-sex couples.

[23] Largely symbolic, the registry was the first of its kind in the state, and it required couples to swear that they were in committed relationships of at least six months.

Two bills, providing some limited domestic partnership rights for same-sex and different-sex couples, were passed by the 2008 General Assembly and came into effect on July 1 of that year.

A bill put forth creating a domestic partnership registry with the State attorney's office, passed by both chambers of the Nevada Legislature in early May 2009, but was vetoed by Gov.

In 2002, Nevada voters approved Question 2 -- the referendum banning state recognition of same-sex marriages.

Governor Jim Doyle included language in the bill to allow for domestic partnership registrations for all unmarried persons, that will provide certain and limited rights and obligations of marriage.

Wisconsin is not the first state to offer such domestic partnership benefits despite having a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and comparable alternatives, like civil unions.

These are de facto domestic partnerships that protect both parties and allow for shared property and court recognition of their relationships.

[28][29] Additionally sometimes adult adoption by gay couples creates a de jure domestic partnership in all 50 states.