Posted on Wednesday, December 31, 2003 - 3:19 pm:

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The anti-gay American Family Association is sponsoring an on-line poll regarding same sex marriage. And the great news is, they are losing their own poll! They're trying hard to rally their troops to control the outcome. If you want to assure that same-sex marriage wins out, go to the web site http://www.marriagepoll.com and submit your own vote, then forward this to others who may be interested.

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Posted on Friday, January 2, 2004 - 1:22 pm:

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This bill, which is designated the "Domestic Partnership Act," creates a mechanism, through the establishment of domestic partnerships, for New Jersey to recognize and support the many adult individuals in this State who share an important personal, emotional and committed relationship with another adult. These familial relationships assist the State by establishing a private support network for the financial, physical, and emotional health of their participants. This bill provides the State with the opportunity to recognize the important material and non-economic contributions that individuals in these relationships make to each other, and to the State, by conferring certain rights and benefits, as well as obligations and responsibilities, upon domestic partners.

Currently, a significant number of New Jersey residents live in families in which the heads of household are unmarried. Despite their interdependence and mutual commitment, these families do not currently have access to the protections and benefits offered by the law to married couples; nor do they bear legal obligations to each other, no matter how interdependent their relationship. This bill seeks to redress this oversight and provide certain benefits to, and enforce certain obligations within, these families.

The bill provides that two persons who desire to become domestic partners may execute and file an Affidavit of Domestic Partnership with the local registrar upon payment of a fee, in an amount to be determined by the Commissioner of Health and Senior Services, if they meet all of the following requirements:

-- Both persons share a common residence in this State, or share the same place to live in another jurisdiction when at least one of them is a member of a State-administered retirement system;

-- Both persons agree to be jointly responsible for each other's basic living expenses during the domestic partnership;

-- Neither person is in a marriage recognized by New Jersey law or a member of another domestic partnership;

-- Neither person is related to the other by blood or affinity up to and including the fourth degree of consanguinity;

-- Both persons are of the same sex and therefore unable to enter into a marriage with each other that is recognized by New Jersey law, except that two persons who are each 63 years of age or older and not of the same sex may establish a domestic partnership if they meet the requirements set forth in the bill;

-- Both persons have chosen to share each other's lives in a committed relationship of mutual caring;

-- Both persons are at least 18 years of age;

-- Both persons file jointly an Affidavit of Domestic Partnership; and

-- Neither person has been a partner in a domestic partnership that was terminated less than 180 days prior to the filing of the current Affidavit of Domestic Partnership, except that this prohibition shall not apply if one of the partners died; and, in all cases in which a person registered a prior domestic partnership, the domestic partnership shall have been terminated in accordance with the provisions of the bill.

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