Where are domestic partnerships granted?
The only state that grants domestic partnership as of today is California. There's legislation that's moving forward which is going to the governor of Washington to recognize domestic partnerships, but it's a very limited domestic partner registry. It would give maybe five or six rights, whereas California's gives hundreds. New Jersey had domestic partnership recognition, but recently passed civil unions law, so they now have civil unions, which is a different way of recognizing relationships. There's a domestic partner bill that's moving forward in the Oregon legislature as well. As far as cities go, New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles - probably over 100 major cities - all recognize domestic partners. In addition, in several of those cities and in the state of California, those cities and states don't do business with companies that don't give domestic partner benefits to their employees. That's another reason that people might want to register: because they can get benefits, and the government requires companies who do business to give those benefits.
