County Not Exploring Domestic Partnership Registry Options
While nearby counties explore options for creating a registry for same-sex partners, Pasco has yet to take up the issue.
As some Bay area counties move forward with plans to give same-sex partners more freedom to make medical and financial decisions for each other, Pasco County has yet to consider the issue.
Commissioner Pat Mulieri said on Thursday, the same day nearby Hillsborough was considering its options, that Pasco hasn't had the issue arise.
While Hillsborough Commissioners ultimately voted 4-3 against creating a Domestic Partnership Registry during their Jan. 24 meeting, other nearby counties and cities have adopted registries already.
In Hillsborough, the registry idea was proposed by Commissioner Mark Sharpe.
"As a citizen who lives in this county and as tax payer aren't they owed the respect and right to have these six basic rights and services that government itself provides," Sharpe said during Thursday's meeting.
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The City of Tampa approved a domestic partnership registry in April. The registry opened its rolls in June and so far 369 people have registered. Pinellas County decided to create it own registry last week.
Sharpe suggested patterning the county's registry after Tampa's.
Tampa's registry allows the following rights to couples who register:
- to visit his or her partner in health care facilities
- to make certain health care decisions for his or her partner
- to make funeral and burial decisions for his or her partner
- to be notified as a family member in case of emergency
- to be designated his or her partner's pre-need guardian
- to participate in the education of his or her partner's children
New Port Richey Patch Facebook fans were quiet on the issue when asked if it's time for the county to look into creating a registry. The question, however, quickly got 18 likes from followers.
In nearby Land O' Lakes, residents had mixed opinions.
"Yes they should," replied Land O' Lakes Patch Facebook fan Wendy Moller Seth when we asked if Pasco should pursue the issue.
Sony Fike-Wyman didn't agree. She simply wrote "no" to the question.
To be eligible for the domestic partnership registry, couples must be unmarried adults, not committed to another person through another registry or civil union, live together, and agree to be responsible for each others basic needs.
About 16 locations in Florida have domestic partnership registries, including the City of Tampa, St. Petersburg, Gulfport, Clearwater and Pinellas County.
Do you think it's time for Pasco County to look into creating a domestic partner registry, New Port Richey? Share your thoughts in the comments section.
Barb
11:40 pm on Friday, January 25, 2013
I am an ultra right winger and my stance on gays is .....well, I figure marriage is just not right. God made a man and a woman for a reason. I cannot accept two men or two men being married in God's eyes. I do believe though in some kind of legal partnerships where they can have insurance policies, bank accounts, to be able to visit in hospitals etc. Common Law marriage use to be viewed as somewhat legal, something like that.
Grace
9:20 am on Saturday, January 26, 2013
As an ultra common senser, not left or right winger, my stance is what's wrong with a domestic registry? I think this is also for heterosexual couples. Now I would never marry someone of the same sex, but if two people who love each other want to do it, then it's their business Not yours, not mine and you forget that you can't get married "before God" until you have that marriage license granted by the state. But this is about a domestic registry.
Timeforchange
9:39 am on Monday, April 15, 2013
I would just like to say for anyone to get married is none of your business do we care if you marry someone out of your race no! So don't worry about who I want to marry
michael mirra
6:59 am on Saturday, January 26, 2013
Liberty Belle, This isn't talking about marriage. It's talking about people who are together, who already are together, having the right to make medical decisions for their life partner. The "some kind of legal partnership" you talk about IS what the domestic partnership registry is about.
Also, just because YOU 'cannot accept' Married doesn't explain why in America people can be deprived of the same rights more mainstream people have just because YOU don't accept it.
The Declaration of Independence says ALL Americans have the right to pursuit of happiness. It doesn't say only the pursuits that YOU except.
Sandra Dornick
7:43 am on Saturday, January 26, 2013
This decision was made by God and God alone. What he says, goes. We are in His universe and we need to abide by his rules. If people take action outside the boundry he established, then expect consequences. This applies to all life matters.
Barb
8:11 am on Saturday, January 26, 2013
I agree. The first law book was the Bible. Amen!
michael mirra
6:13 am on Sunday, January 27, 2013
God told YOU. When did he speak to you? That's why people are against these religious people that twist God to fit their aganda. God didn't make any decision just because people want to read that into whatever they choose. Besides, if you want to have God's law as the law of the land, form your own country. This is America. Your God isn't the only God except in your head. The founding Fathers fled religious persecution to come here. We won't let Religious persecution have credance in America. They say we are destroying God. That's their idea. We are removing their image of a vengeful, petty, twisted God in their image & replacing the view of God to be more representitive of what God must be like. God is an imortal spirit that belongs to everyone. They all call him different names, but it;s all the same God. God is not a small minded American.
TBL35
3:42 pm on Sunday, January 27, 2013
I'm with Michael. You can do whatever you think God tells you to do, leave it out of the government.
Timeforchange
9:42 am on Monday, April 15, 2013
Should I judge you because you believe in god maybe you should be able to visit your partner in the hospital. You know why! ? Because you believe in god... Not so nice huh? Well this is what you sound like...
michael mirra
6:17 am on Sunday, January 27, 2013
Lib Bell, The bible doesn't say anything about sexual orientation.
Barb
6:14 am on Monday, January 28, 2013
The Bible does speak of sexual sins.
View this Leuiticus chapter 20 page at a larger size (Leviticus, the original 1611 KJV)
1 And the Lord spake vnto Moses, saying,
2 Againe, thou shalt say to the children of Israel; whosoeuer he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that soiourne in Israel, that giueth any of his seed vnto Molech, he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him with stones.
.
10 ¶ And the man that committeth adulterie with another mans wife, euen he that committeth adulterie with his neighbours wife, the adulterer, and the adulteresse shall surely bee put to death.10
11 And the man that lieth with his fathers wife, hath vncouered his fathers nakednesse: both of them shalbe put to death; their blood shalbe vpon them.11
12 And if a man lie with his daughter in law, both of them shall surely be put to death: they haue wrought confusion; their blood shall be vpon them.
13 If a man also lie with mankind, as hee lyeth with a woman, both of them haue committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shalbe vpon them.13
TBL35
3:44 pm on Sunday, January 27, 2013
Let's not forget, this sort of registry also benefits hetero sex couples who don't wish to marry, such as elderly ones where one would lose a widow's pension by remarrying.
To me it's a crime that same sex couples are denied benefits that married heteros can get. They pay taxes just like everyone else.
michael mirra
6:12 pm on Sunday, January 27, 2013
In America it is not true freedom if those who enjoy freedom are a selective group. At one time Blacks & Whites could not have a unions. America moved beyond the racial Aparthied & is moving past sexual Aparthied also, one state at a time. They said the Bible forbade rae mixing back then. The Red States are always the last to adapt. Even within the Red States, the more cosmoplitan areas are sooner to be out of the dark ages that extreme Christianity holds onto. The less Cosmopolitan an area is, the longer it stays ignorant.
These religious people don't let themselves see that their small minded exclusions are opposed to everything America stands for.
Barb
6:20 am on Monday, January 28, 2013
For all those who condemn the Christian mind set also need to condemn the Islamic teachings in the Koran. Where Christians believe incest and homosexuality is a sin, we don't condemn them. Islam continues to hang gays, even children. Anything looked upon as a sexual sin is condemned brutally in Muslim countries, lashes, stoning or hanging . So please don't lump Christians as being the ones who want a moral America when across the ocean the Muslim world kills their citizens for every immoral act proven.
Phil
1:35 pm on Monday, January 28, 2013
In the original Hebrew (from which your quote was tranlated), there are two words that were both translated as "abomination": to'eivah, for homosexuality, and sheketz, for non-kosher food. So, not sure how you get there, from here.... (from God Hates Shrimp).
More importantly, there's a ton a really really stupid stuff in the bible, and you don't get to just pick and choose whatever you want, be it New Testament or Old Testament. Some fine examples:
“Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.” (Psalm 137:9)
“If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them: ... And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die..." (Deuteronomy 21:18-21)
“You shall not molest or oppress an alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt.” (an argument for Immigration reform!)
~Exodus 22:22
If two men, a man and his countryman, are struggling together, and the wife of one comes near to deliver her husband from the hand of the one who is striking him, and puts out her hand and seizes his genitals, then you shall cut off her hand; you shall not show pity. (Deuteronomy 25:11-12)
This is what faith, instead of logic gets you...
Susan Washburn
7:34 am on Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Domestic partnership is not only about same sex partners. Domestic partners are two PEOPLE who live together and are not married. If you are living as boyfriend and girlfriend and you have a domestic partnership then you can have access to either partner's health insurance care as provided by the other's employer. This is a great thing for people who just don't want to be married again due to the pain and excessive costs of divorce.
Susan Washburn
7:40 am on Wednesday, January 30, 2013
However, I do not believe that anyone should be held by law as responsible for anyone else's basic needs, unless someone is that person's parent or guardian and the other person is a child. This "responsibility for the other's basic needs" creates a governmental rule over our private and economic lives.