Welcome

Saying the system does not violate the state's ban on same-sex marriage, a judge has upheld Wisconsin's domestic partners registry.

Dane County Circuit Judge Daniel Moeser ruled that the 2009 law does not create a legal status for partners that is identical or substantially similar to that of marriage and therefore it does not violate the constitutional ban approved by voters in 2006. “The state does not recognize domestic partnership in a way that even remotely resembles how the state recognizes marriage,” Moeser said in the ruling. “Moreover, domestic partners’ have far fewer legal rights, duties, and liabilities in comparison to the legal rights, duties, and liabilities of spouses.”

The anti-gay Christian group that brought the suit says they will now appeal to the state Supreme Court.

Wisconsin GOP Gov. Scott Walker has ordered the state to stop defending a 2009 law granting gay couples the right to visit each other in the hospital and make end-of-life decisions. The anti-gay group Wisconsin Family Action is suing the state to overturn the law.

On Friday, Walker filed a motion to stop defending the case. "Governor Walker, in deference to the legal opinion of the attorney general that the domestic partner registry...is unconstitutional, does not believe the public interest requires a continued defense of this law," says the brief, filed by Walker's chief counsel, Brian Hagedorn. Hagedorn told Dane County Circuit Judge Daniel Moeser that if he could not withdraw from the case, he would like to amend earlier filings to reflect Walker's belief that the registries conflict with the state constitution.

The LGBT group Fair Wisconsin will continue to defend the case in court.

From the clip description:

A Wisconsin judge on Monday said he didn't believe a molestation defendant who insisted he was heterosexual, making his point with references to a jock strap and a prom dress. Judge Philip Kirk of Waupaca commented before sentencing former New London school bus driver Delton Gorges to seven years in prison. During the sentencing hearing, the judge said "I think you were born gayer than a sweet smelling jock strap," Kirk said. Gorges, who drove a school bus for 33 years, pleaded no contest to four counts of fourth-degree sexual assault. "I think that if anyone believes that in the last 10 years or 15 years all of a sudden you developed an interest in homosexuality and young boys, then I must have looked ravishing in my prom dress this year," Kirk said.