(Duluth, Minnesota) An openly gay Duluth city council member is proposing a domestic partner registry for same-sex couples in the city.

Jeff Anderson told The Duluth News Tribune that he will introduce the ordinance in three weeks. He acknowledged that it will have little legal bearing, but argued that it would still be of great symbolic significance to gay and lesbian couples.

The registry would also be open to opposite-sex couples who chose not to marry.

Couples would have to show they are “jointly responsible to each other for the necessities of life” and “are as committed to one another as married persons are traditionally committed.”

They would register at city hall after paying a $25 fee and receive a certificate.

Anderson said that it would help couples gain domestic partner benefits at companies that offer them to the partners of employees.

“How are companies supposed to know you’re a domestic partner?” Anderson told the News Tribune.

“This is a municipal entity recognizing it as such, which then makes it easier for those benefits to be administered by their employer, if offered.”

Same-sex couples still, however, would not be entitled to spousal benefits from the city.  Minnesota law prevents non-married public sector workers from receiving domestic partner benefits.

Anderson, the city’s first openly gay council member, said the ordinance is based on a similar one in Minneapolis, enacted in 1991.