Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle defended a
gay-inclusive domestic partnership law created through the state
budget process being challenged by a social conservative group as a
“sneaky assault on marriage.”
Wisconsin became the first state with a
constitutional amendment banning marriage and civil unions for gay
and lesbian couples to recognize their unions with passage of the
registry last month. Governor Jim Doyle, a Democrat, lobbied for the
legislation, which extends a limited number of protections for gay
and lesbian couples, by including the language in his biannual state
budged approved by lawmakers. Most of the 43 rights granted to
couples center around estate planning and hospital visitation issues.
The law goes into effect August 3.
The group Wisconsin Family Action
(WFA), which supported passage of the 2006 voter-approved anti-gay
marriage amendment as the Family Research Institute, and the
Christian-based Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) announced last week they
were taking their fight
to the state Supreme Court.
“This new domestic partnership scheme
is a sneaky assault on marriage from those who are determined to
redefine marriage in Wisconsin,” Julaine Appling, president of WFA
and lead petitioner in the lawsuit, said in a statement.
On Friday, Doyle told Wisconsin Radio
Network that he was confident the law was legal and indicated that he
thinks Appling and her group have been deceptive in their public
statements.
“The lawyers have all assured me that
this is not a marriage, but I think most people agree that it's a
statement of some basic rights that most people in Wisconsin think
should be protected.”
“These are people, who by the way,
when the Wisconsin constitutional amendment was passed made repeated
public statements saying that this would not preclude domestic
partnership legislation. So now, apparently, they're singing a
different tune.”
Doyle said that the gay-inclusive
domestic partner law allowed Wisconsin to provide some basic human
rights for people without getting “embroiled in the whole marriage
issue.”