It could Happen To You

[DesDownunder]

Grab the tissue box, you'll need it, but I think it is worth it.

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/pR9gyloyOjM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[blue]

That is all too true for too many gay people.

From the video, Shane and Tom, would've been born when I was in high school. But their experiences echo close to home for me. My essays, "Dear Miss S.," "Remembering Sean," and "To My Anti-Aunt" have some similarities. (You wouldn't see the similarity in the Anti-Aunt item, from only what I wrote.) -- That isn't to draw attention away from Shane and Tom, but to say, they are not alone in the experience.

Some day, people like my "anti-aunt" may discover how much they have lost, how much they have denied happiness to the ones they claim to love, and perhaps how far their beliefs differ from the full intent of those beliefs. People are missing out because some can't see past their narrow, restricted worldviews.

[colinian]

<p>This video makes me furious. Shane and Tom were both over 18 years old. They started a business together. They had a mortgage on a home together. They lived in California. WTF didn't they become California Registered Domestic Partners? It doesn't cost very much. Both parties have to be at least 18 years old. As California Registered Domestic Partners Shane and Tom would have had all of the rights granted to married couples in California (except divorce; "dissolution" is for CRDPs). Shane could have told Tom's mother to pound salt and fly home to Indiana.</p>

<p>By deciding to wait until they could be legally married in California, and not applying to be legal California Registered Domestic Partners, Shane and Tom gave away all of the rights they should have had.</p>

<p>Doug and I mailed our application to be California Registered Domestic Partners with a check for $33.00 from our joint checking account on the day I turned 18, November 21, 2007; Doug's 18th birthday was on September 23, 2007 so we had to wait until I was 18. Three weeks later we had the document from Debra Bowen, the Secretary of State of California, stating that as of November 27, 2007, Doug and I were California Registered Domestic Partners.</p>

<p>This law in California went into effect on January 1, 2007. Ther was no secret about this law. It was publicized on TV and in newspapers across the state for months before it became effective and for months after. It was a wonderful Christmas 2007 gift for all gay citizens of California.</p>

<p>Might this have helped Tom? Perhaps. Perhaps not. But it would have helped Shane. He would have known that he automatically inherited everything that Tom owned; remember, they had no will, and California is a Community Property state. He could have sent Tom's bi*ch of a mother home empty-handed. No body. No momentos. No valuables. No cash. No half of the house that Shane and Tom purchased together.</p>

<p>This story makes me furious: W.T.F. didn't they become California Registered Domestic Partners? There is nothing that would have prevented them from marrying when it became legal in California. Maybe that's what Tom was alluding to when he says "Protect yourself before it's too late." But he should have said "Become California Registered Domestic Partners"!!</p>

<p>This is the advice I have for every gay and lesbian couple in California who are 18 or over: Download the Domestic Partnership Registration form from the California Secretary of State's website. Fill it out. Have it notarized. Write a check for whatever the cost is; it's listed on the form. Put it in the mail. Protect your rights NOW!</p>

<p>Colin </p>