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Same-Sex Couples in California
Although lesbian and gay couples in California have more legal rights and protections than same-sex couples in most other states, discrimination remains. This discrimination and unequal treatment can have a particularly harsh impact on same-sex families raising children because, as a whole, these families tend to have fewer economic resources than their different-sex counterparts.
The average household income of Black same-sex parents is far less (lagging behind by more than $21,000) than that of non-Black different-sex parents. The mean household income for Black same-sex couples with children is $57,640, compared to a mean household income for white heterosexual couples with children of $79,557. The relative economic status between Black same-sex couples and non-Black heterosexual couples is also evident in rates of homeownership. Only 40% of Black same-sex couples own their home, while over 60% of non-Black different-sex couples own their home.
California’s Treatment of Same-Sex Couples
The status of same-sex couples in California changed significantly in 2003 when the California legislature enacted AB 205, the California Domestic Partner Rights and Responsibilities Act of 2003. When it went into effect on January 1, 2005, AB 205 expanded the rights and responsibilities provided to registered domestic partners and their families to include nearly all state legal rights, duties, benefits, responsibilities that the state provides to married spouses.
More recently, on September 6, 2005, the California Legislature made history by becoming the first state legislature in the nation to pass equal marriage rights legislation for same-sex couples. Unfortunately, this bill – AB 849, the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act – was later vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger.
While same-sex couples in California have access to most of the state-level rights and responsibilities of married spouses, they are still excluded from the over 1,000 rights, benefits, and privileges that the federal government provides to married couples. For example, California same-sex couples who have a domestic partnership can visit each other in the hospital, but they cannot collect each other’s social security benefits, sponsor their partner for immigration status, or file joint federal income tax returns.
The following is a brief sample of Equality California sponsored bills that have been passed in California to reduce discrimination against same-sex couples. Although these measures improve the legal status and protections offered to same-sex couples, none of them permits same-sex couples to marry.
1999: AB 26 – Created a statewide domestic partnership registry, which extended hospital visitation rights to registered domestic partners and allowed CalPERS (California Public Employees Retirement System) to extend health benefits to domestic partners of certain state employees.
2001: AB 25 – Gave registered domestic partners several basic rights to take care of each other, including the right to use the stepparent adoption procedures, the right to make medical decisions for an incapacitated domestic partner, and the right to sue for wrongful death.
2002: AB 2216 – Gave a surviving domestic partner the right to inherit a specified share of a partner’s separate property if a partner dies without a will.
SB 1661 – Established a family temporary disability insurance program to provide up to six weeks of wage replacement benefits to workers who take time off work to care for a seriously ill child, spouse, parent, domestic partner, or to bond with a new child.
2003: AB 17 – Prohibited a state agency from entering into a contract worth $100,000 or more with businesses that discriminate in providing employment benefits to registered domestic partners.
AB 205 – Significantly expanded the rights and responsibilities currently provided to registered domestic partners and their families to include nearly all the legal rights, benefits, responsibilities, duties, and obligations under state law currently available only to spouses.
2004: AB 2208 – Prohibited discrimination in insurance coverage to ensure equal treatment between domestic partners and spouses.
“The president vowed to ‘do what is legally necessary to defend the sanctity of marriage.’ He did not explain precisely how gays and lesbians are attacking the sanctity of marriage by wishing to be bound by it. In fact, same-sex marriages are not likely to have any impact on the sanctity of the president’s marriage or my marriage or any other heterosexual’s marriage. My wife and I would still be married and so would the president and the first lady -- for better or worse, in sickness and in health, ’til death do us part, etc., etc.” (Clarence Page, Columnist, Chicago Tribune, 12/03/03)
