Eighty-three Benton couples have registered as partners under new law

It’s been a little more than a month since same-sex couples in Oregon have been able to pay a $60 fee, sign some papers and emerge as a legally recognized domestic partnership. The controversial legislation, passed during the 2007 legislative session, gives gay couples some of the same rights and protections that traditional couples automatically receive when they marry.

In Benton County, 83 couples have formed domestic partnerships since Feb. 4, the first day the registry became available. A majority of couples registered within the first week, with another flurry around Valentine’s Day. But since then, the number of same-sex couples seeking legal recognition has trickled off to about one or two a day, according to staffers at the Benton County Records and Licenses Department.

Across the state, more than 1,300 couples have registered since the law took effect allowing domestic partner registration.

Curtis Keifer and Walter Frankel were the 17th couple to register as domestic partners in Benton County on Feb. 4. Afterward, they drove up to Tiffany Co. in Portland to purchase a set of silver rings they’d had their eyes on. The men have been together for more than 26 years. They already have celebrated their partnership in other ways. The registry was more about gaining legal protections.

Frankel is retired, and both men know that as they age, health concerns could make it crucial for each partner to have a say in the other’s medical care.

“We’re better able to take care of each other,” Keifer said. The registry enables couples to make health care decisions on behalf of an incapacitated partner.

The first chance the couple had to see the registry in action was when Frankel was calling a life insurance company with questions on a policy. He was able to ask for information for Keifer as well, and the company gave him that information after they learned that they were registered as domestic partners. Keifer doesn’t believe they’d have divulged that information previously.

“It’s made life easier,” he said, and makes them feel like, in some ways, they’re being given the chance to do things that some straight couples take for granted.

However, domestic partnerships still are not equal to marriage in a number of ways. For example, there’s health insurance.

Christian Matheis and Isaac Magana met at Oregon State University as undergraduates. They have been together eight years. On Feb. 4, they were one of the first couples to register as domestic partners.

Magana is covered under Matheis’ health insurance at OSU as a domestic partner. But under federal law, Matheis has to pay taxes on the benefits Magana receives. Married couples are not taxed on those benefits. The new domestic partnership law does not alter that taxation.

However, one of the biggest new benefits Matheis and Magana value under the law is the new recognition they’ve felt when using the term “partner,” especially in situations such as changing car insurance or making other financial decisions.

“It means something to (other people), and it didn’t before,” Matheis said. Whereas the term “partner” always has been significant to them as a couple, “It has informed everyone else to respond differently.”

And in the future, when Matheis and Magana make other big decisions, such as buying a home together or possibly adopting children, the new law will afford them other protections as well.

The domestic partnership law is not going unchallenged. This week, an initiative proposing to repeal the law was filed by two Republican legislators, Rep. Sal Esquivel and Rep. Fred Girod. Signature gathers must collect nearly 83,000 signatures to get the initiative on the ballot in November.