Arizona Bill Would Add Rights for Gays with Partners
House Bill 2710 gives same-sex couples the right to name a partner as a life insurance beneficiary, make decisions in life-threatening hospital situations and arrange for the funeral and burial of a partner. It allows them to leave personal belongings to a partner and makes it easier to buy a house jointly as married couples do.
House Bill 2710 is sponsored by Rep. Kyrsten Sinema of Phoenix and 22 other lawmakers, most of them Democrats. It is being offered in the midst of an all-out battle to confirm Arizona's ban on gay marriage through a proposed state constitutional amendment.
Conservative activists and lawmakers, poised to begin collecting the necessary signatures to put the constitutional change on the 2006 ballot, vow to derail Sinema's bill.
The legislation, which will be debated and possibly voted on this week in the House Human Services Committee, gives same-sex couples the right to adopt and splits in half the cost and responsibilities of raising a child.
Critics of same-sex unions said the bill is nothing more than another attempt to legalize gay marriage. To read the full article which appeared in The Arizona Republic, click here.
