“Realistically my sense is that it’s done for this year,” said Sen. Peter Wirth, the bill’s sponsor told the New Mexico Independent. “It’s gonna happen, it’s just a matter of when.”

The 800-page bill would grant the rights and responsibilities of marriage to unmarried gay or straight couples. The measure passed the state House last year but failed in the Senate.

The move by the finance committee strikes a blow to Gov. Bill Richardson’s vow to fight for the rights of gays and lesbians in his state.

The agreement ends a lawsuit filed in 2007 by three lesbians whose domestic partner benefits ended when they retired from state jobs.

In 2003, Bill Richardson issued an executive order providing state employees, both gay and straight, with the option of providing their partners health insurance through domestic partner coverage. Under the order, domestic partner coverage is not available to employees after they retire, while spousal coverage is provided. 

The retired state workerswith the help of the ACLU filed suit claiming the state discriminated against them in canceling the health benefits. 

The lawsuit charged that the state’s policy of denying lesbian and gay state retirees equal health insurance for their partners violated the state constitution’s equality guarantees. 

Unlike their straight colleagues, lesbian and gay employees are barred from marrying in the state and therefore, in the absence of domestic partner benefits, are denied equal compensation.

Tuesday, the state agreed to extend the benefits retroactive to 2003.

“We are very pleased that the state has agreed to settle this litigation and provide the insurance.  It wasn’t fair that the state forced lesbian and gay employees to pay the high cost of health care for often inferior health insurance for their families when they worked just as hard as their straight colleagues,” said Peter Simonson of the ACLU of New Mexico.  

“I’m sure this will be welcome news to all lesbian and gay state employees, but especially to those who have retired or are planning to do so soon.” 

Under the settlement, the state has agreed to develop a process for enrolling those interested during the next open enrollment period, which comes this fall.  

“This is fantastic news.  We can finally start planning our retirement,” said Havens Levitt, who has been a teacher for the Albuquerque public school for 25 years. 

 “Until now, our only option was for me to keep working because my partner’s employment doesn’t provide insurance for her and private insurance was just too expensive.  It means a lot that the state has acknowledged I should be treated the same as my straight colleagues.”

Couples would register with local county clerks and receive certificates attesting to their relationships. Partners would have to swear they are over 18 and not otherwise in a relationship.

They would be guaranteed access to each other in hospitals and be able to make medical decisions for partners who are unable to make those decisions themselves, and they would be granted other state benefits and rights accorded to partners in marriages.

A House version of the legislation is currently in the Consumer Public Affairs Committee.

Opponents of the bill call it an assault on traditional marriage. Supporters of the measure say it is about creating equality.

“This is simply about making sure that all loving, committed couples in New Mexico receive the equal rights that they and their families need and deserve,” said Joe Solmonese of the Washington DC-based Human Rights Campaign.

New Mexico’s legislature has considered similar legislation in each of the last two years, and the bill has, in the past, come within a single vote of passing.  New Mexico’s legislative session runs through March 21, 2009.

Gov. Bill Richardson supports the bill. A spokesperson for the governor said Richardson will be “visiting with legislators who don’t currently support the bill” in an effort to get them to change their minds.

In 2003, Richardson issued an executive order providing state employees, both gay and straight, with the option of providing their partners health insurance through domestic partner coverage.

Five other states – California, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, and Vermont – as well as the District of Columbia have enacted domestic partner or civil unions laws that provide the same benefits under state law that would be provided by the Domestic Partner Rights and Responsibilities Act in New Mexico, if enacted.

Two states, Massachusetts and Connecticut, recognize marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples under state law.  Three states, Hawaii, Maine, and Washington, provide limited rights to gay and lesbian couples who enter into a domestic partnership or similar relationship.  Currently, no gay or lesbian couple receives any of the more than 1,100 federal rights and benefits available to married couples, and the New Mexico bill would not provide any of these rights.

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 5-5 on the Domestic Rights and Responsibilities Act.  One member was absent, but legislation needs a majority to advance. The vote means the bill is virtually dead.

The only hopes of reviving it would be for a member of the committee to end their opposition and call for a new vote, or for the House to pass a similar bill and send it to the Senate.

Gov. Bill Richardson supports the bill. A spokesperson for the governor said Richardson will be “visiting with legislators who don’t currently support the bill” in an effort to get them to change their minds.

A House version of the legislation is currently in the Consumer Public Affairs Committee.

The legislation would create a statewide domestic partnership registry for both same and opposite-sex couples.

Couples would register with local county clerks and receive certificates attesting to their relationships. Partners would have to attest they are over the age of 18 and not otherwise in a relationship.

They would be guaranteed access to each other in hospitals and be able to make medical decisions for partners who are unable to make those decisions themselves, and they would be granted other state benefits and rights accorded to partners in marriages.

Equality New Mexico called the failure in the Senate a “a temporary setback.” Spokesperson Linda Siegle said it took 12 years, but lawmakers last year approved a bill banning discrimination against gays and lesbians in employment or housing.

The LGBT rights group has been pushing the partnership bill for the past three years.  Twice the measure has passed the House only to be blocked in the Senate.

In 2003, Richardson issued an executive order providing state employees, both gay and straight, with the option of providing their partners health insurance through domestic partner coverage.

New Mexico governor Bill Richardson is keeping his day job. Selected by Barack Obama to be his commerce secretary, Richardson withdrew his name from consideration due to a grand-jury probe focusing on if his office urged a state agency to hire a political donor.

“Given the gravity of the economic situation the nation is facing, I could not in good conscience ask the President-elect and his administration to delay for one day the important work that needs to be done,” Richardson said in a released statement.

Looks like Obama’s transition team isn’t all knowing and perfect because the grand jury has been going on since August and a few Democratic operatives, all off the record of course, have hinted they had concerns about Richardson from day one.

This mess was dealt with rather quickly but that makes sense. Obama can only be associated with one pay to play scandal.

While we are on the topic of embattled Illinois governor Rod R. Blagojevich, isn’t the man with the hair brilliant? He picks Roland W. Burris, a career pol, to take Obama’s vacant Senate seat. Now Senate Democrats have to explain why they are barring the door to a black guy whose only taint is being picked by Blagojevich. Ohh the racial drama is just too much! Don’t go crazy. It’s filled with nutty hubris but it is entertaining.