New Mexico Advances On Domestic Partners

New Mexico, one of the few states that has not banned or approved same-sex marriages, moved slightly closer to equality last week when a state senate committee narrowly approved advancing a domestic partners bill to the judiciary committee.

The Senate Public Affairs Committee voted 5-4 to give a favorable recommendation to the measure (SB 12), which would extend the same legal benefits that married couples have under New Mexico law to unmarried couples, whether homosexual or heterosexual. Domestic partners would have the right to take family medical leave to care for a partner who is ill, the authority to make end-of-life decisions for a partner and would be entitled to property rights in a partner's pension and inheritance rights. Domestic partners also would have the same responsibilities as married couples in child custody and visitation issues and paying child support.

Christianist news site One News Now bleats:

Former New Mexico Congressman Bill Redman weighed in on the subject recently in an interview on Ruidoso Christian radio station KEDU. "This is same-sex marriage -- and so they are deceptive #1 by the very title of the bill," stated Redman. "The bill is referred to as 'domestic partnership,' but the courts have already determined that domestic partnership is identical to and is same-sex marriage." According to Redman, passage of the Act (HB 21 / SB 12) is very dangerous to the Christian community in The Land of Enchantment. "We are poised right now...if this passes, that every pastor in every church in the state, that if we do not provide full same-sex marriage services, that the pastors and the churches will be in violation," he noted. And they can be punished, he added.

Redman is a liar, obviously.