Jersey City resident Catherine Hecht was looking forward to registering with her partner of two years, Beth Achenbach, as soon as the City Clerk’s office opened at 8:30 a.m. Monday morning.
“From the time we started knowing each other and finding we had a lot in common, that I knew that I wanted to spend time with Beth,” said Hecht, who heads the Jersey City Lesbian and Gay Outreach.
Hecht, 37 and Achenbach, 34, who both reside a few blocks from City Hall, were the first couple in Jersey City who took advantage of the state Domestic Partnership Act. The law, signed by Gov. James McGreevey in January, took effect on Saturday, July 10. It grants only some of the basic rights that married couples receive to same sex-couples and to unmarried heterosexual couples over the age of 62.Those rights include the right of hospital visitation usually reserved for immediate family members, making health care decisions for a loved one if he or she is unable to, and filing joint tax returns without paying an inheritance tax. Also, domestic partners of New Jersey state workers would be eligible to receive certain health care and retirement benefits. Insurance companies must offer coverage to domestic partners as they do to opposite-sex spouses.
But the law does not provide for many other rights accorded to opposite sex married couples such as property sharing. One partner may not be entitled to their partner’s share if the partner dies, and private employers do not have to pay for domestic partner coverage. Also, they must go in front of a Superior Court judge in order to terminate their relationship.
Big celebration The Domestic Partnership Act was celebrated on July 10 with a daylong festival in Maplewood, where it was reported that over 400 couples registered as domestic partners. It also took effect the same week that the U.S. Congress voted down the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would change the U.S. Constitution to eliminate the right of any state to permit same-sex marriage. Domestic partnership is considered a first step toward same-sex marriage.
Hecht and Achenbach were among the hundreds of couples who went to Maplewood to celebrate the first day that this landmark legislation went into effect. But they chose not to register in Maplewood but rather wait two days later to do so in their place of residence.
“We wanted to do it in our hometown. We love living in Jersey City. There is so much diversity,” said Hecht.
‘The state is only a witness’ Catherine Hecht and Beth Achenbach waited for City Clerk Robert Byrne to help them. A friend and Hecht’s father also joined the couple.
After a few minutes, Byrne came to the front desk to attend to Hecht and Achenbach. They brought a form known as an Affidavit of Domestic Partnership, which they had signed in the presence of a notary public. The affidavit contains personal information such as the full names of the partners, address, and their common residence. This affidavit is then filed with the City Clerk or local registrar.
But if the couple does not come in with an affidavit, they can fill one out provided by the city clerk. That affidavit will be notarized by a city clerk staff member who is a notary public, with the couple taking an oath verifying the information.
The city clerk asks the couple 10 questions from a worksheet for completion of certificate of domestic partnership. Once the worksheet is completed, a $28 fee is paid.
The process took about a half-hour as Byrne still learning it. Byrne, the city clerk for the past 15 years, said he had to attend a state mandated workshop in Holmdel in June where city clerks were educated about the Domestic Partnership Act.
“I didn’t know anything about this until three weeks ago,” said Byrne. “I didn’t even see the forms until 2:30 p.m. Friday.”
How they met Hecht and Achenbach then received their certificates of domestic partnership and were looking forward to celebrating with friends later that day. The two met each other four years ago through an online chat group and have been a couple for two years.
“Our friends are planning to throw us a dinner tonight,” said Hecht. Already celebrating was her father Bob, who was joined in a union with his partner in ceremony at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London in 1974.
“The state doesn’t marry a couple. The state is only a witness,” said Hecht. “God created us to love one another.” Other couples following Hecht and Achenbach on that Monday morning were Denton Stargel and Mark Collins, and Barbara Milton and Kay Osborn.
A total of four couples would register by the end of the first day in Jersey City, and by July 15, there were a total of eight Jersey City couples who registered for domestic partnership.
Are seniors registering? Joyce Davison was not among them. Davison, the director of the Grace Senior Center for Healthy Living that operates in the Grace Church Van Vorst located in Downtown Jersey City, has been in a relationship with her partner Jim for twenty-five years. She said last week that she would support this act if a partner could receive Social Security benefits or pension benefits.
“[Me and Jim] have thought about marriage before, but it’s not high on the priority list,” said Davison. “And we have already done what most married couples have done, such as filing a living will. So why would we would need to get married?”
Davison believes that state officials when putting together this legislation did not consult seniors, but she is planning to meet with State Assemblyman and mayoral candidate Lou Manzo in the near future.
“I don’t think any seniors in this state are rushing out to register as domestic partners,” said Davison. Sidebar The guidelines for domestic partnership registration
Couples looking to register as Domestic Partners in the state of New Jersey must be same sex couples at least 18 years of age or opposite sex couples who are both 62 years of age or older.
Couples must meet the following requirements:
1) Share a common residence in New Jersey or in any other jurisdiction provided that at least one of the applicants is a member of a New Jersey state-administered retirement system;
2) Both persons are jointly responsible for each other’s common welfare as evidenced by joint financial arrangements or joint ownership of real or personal property;
3) Both persons agree to be jointly responsible for each other’s basic living expenses during the domestic partnership;
4) Neither applicant is in a marriage recognized by New Jersey law or a member of another domestic partnership; 5) Neither person is related to the other by blood or affinity up to and including the fourth degree of consanguinity;
6) Both persons have chosen to share each other’s lives in a committed relationship of mutual caring;
7) Neither applicant has terminated another domestic partnership within the last 180 days. (This prohibition shall not apply when the previous partnership ended with the death of the other partner.) — RK