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Call to Action To: All Believers of God’s Word/Law Issue: Domestic Partners Bill (i.e.: Gay Marriage Bill) will be placed on the legislative session agenda by Governor Bill Richardson.

This bill allows a civil union (marriage) between two adults regardless of sex and gives (quoting the language of last years bill) “the same rights, protections and benefits under law as a spouse in marriage.” This is a direct assault on God’s law and we must defend His law of marriage. 

Last year this bill HB-603 passed the N.M. House of Representatives handily (Click here to see both Senate and House of Representatives voting record for this previous bill.)  The same House voted down a definition of marriage that supports God’s law.  It was believed the bill would pass the N.M. Senate, so with lobbying effort a substitute bill was put forth that eliminated all references to marriage and allowed a contract for 2 adults. This bill only passed by one vote thereby defeating HB-603. The Senate voting record is also posted. 

We must unite to defend God’s law. We have been notified that a multi-millionaire homosexual—Kim Gill—from Colorado has hired lobbyist to pass this bill this year. The Governor would like to pass this bill quietly and early in this session. 

The supporters have a bill ready to go. It is HB-28 and they added language stating a “domestic partnership means a legal relationship that is not marriage” then went on to add language saying “It is unlawful to discriminate against a domestic partner-----on the grounds that the partner is not a spouse---in a marriage”. This is just rearranging the words to try to run us off. It won’t work! 

We must act now and continue through victory. 

Action: We must unite as many religious affiliations as possible and have them inform their membership on this issue. 

Ask our members to call the Governor (505-476-2200), their legislators in both House (505-986-4300) and Senate NOW, before the session starts and after it starts and leave them at least three messages.

• 1. We are praying for them during this session. 
• 2. We do not support the Domestic Partners Bill and ask the Governor to drop it and ask legislators to vote no. (Make a note of their response and give it to your leader/pastor to forward to us.) 
• 3. Voting records will be published and we pray you will vote for God. We will be sending updates and action requests as we progress.

We must be firm and we must be heard. Ask everyone you know to call and keep calling. 

Jesus said, “If anyone is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man   will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels” (Luke 9:26 NIV). 

God said, “You must obey My laws and be careful to follow My decrees. I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 18:4 NIV).

Following are some problems that trouble us, even as laymen. 

• This bill has no residency requirement, which means anyone anywhere in the US could be "married" - i.e., become domestic partners - for $25.00. 
• There are only “misdemeanor” penalties for falsifying information on the affidavit for becoming domestic partners (the potential for fraud is remarkable).
• Section 3.B., which states that it is unlawful to discriminate, encourages domestic partners to “bring an action”.  Anyone who is “damaged or likely to be damaged” may be granted an injunction “under the principles of equity and on terms that the court considers reasonable.”  The prevailing party in an action can collect attorney fees from the party accused even if damages are not proven.
• Specific problems that arise are:
  • Children’s partners do not have to share a residence, which is known to be a bad situation for children.
  • No New Mexico residency is required either to enter into a partnership or to dissolve/annul/separate a partnership, so that Domestic Partnerships created in New Mexico would be presumably be in effect anywhere.  (This would make child custody cases difficult, with results that may persist for many years and perhaps through multiple partnerships.)
  • How would this affect the rights of divorced men and women with children whose former spouses enter into domestic partnerships? 
  • Since [legal or illegal] immigrants becoming domestic partners would be accorded the same rights as married couples, would they gain preferences for themselves or their families to get visas?  Would falsification of information (e.g., birth place) on the affidavit nullify the partnership?  If so, what would be the effect on other family members?
  • Adoption agencies, etc., would be unable to “discriminate against” homes with less ideal circumstances for raising children.  This would especially be a problem for Christian adoption agencies. 
  • Courts would be flooded by matters relating to this ambiguous law. 

This bill could devastate marriage by making marriage and family laws murky. 

We would appreciate your asking any reliable attorney(s) you know to examine the consequences of the bill and to let us know what effects they think it might have.