Bill 18-482, the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009* would end Washington D.C.'s domestic partnership registry.  Please help us tell the Council that's a terrible idea!  The District's definition of domestic partner is among the best in the nation.  It does not exclude people who are related by blood yet meet the other characteristics of long-term commitment and have caring responsibilities for each other.  Partners must be at least 18 years old, competent, living together, and neither married nor in another domestic partnership. Ending the registry is a bad idea because

• Marriage is not the only long-term caring relationship worth supporting.
• Unregistered couples who don't marry because of marriage's economic or cultural burdens would be left without legal protections.
  
• Domestic partners who registered before 2011 and do not "convert" to marriage will become a permanent, unrepresented minority. 
  
• The registry is a symbol of the common bond of concern about access to civil rights that is currently shared among people who identify themselves at every point in the continuum of sexual orientation, among romantic couples and single people who create functional families.
  
• It would be retrograde to end this registry at a time when other jurisdictions are progressively enacting similar registries.
  

Click here to read AtMP's complete testimony.

Please use this easy form to send a message to committee chair Phil Mendelson and bill sponsor David Catania.  We encourage you to personalize your message, and to tell us if you get a response!