All are welcome here
Posted by The editors December 08, 2008 05:00AM
http://blog.cleveland.com/pdopinion/2008/12/all_are_welcome_here.htmlCreating a domestic-partnership registry in Cleveland will hardly undo the symbolic and human damage that Ohio voters inflicted on the state when they passed a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage in 2004 -- but it would be a start.
By approving a registry that will give both same-sex and opposite-sex couples documentation they can use to navigate public and private bureaucracies, Cleveland can declare that tolerance and openness are qualities that define this community. Given the importance of creativity in the modern knowledge economy, such a welcoming message has never been more important for a city and a region.
A registry is not -- no matter what some critics may say -- a circuitous way to enact civil unions; it is certainly not a de facto form of same-sex marriage. It is a recognition that couples -- heterosexual and homosexual alike -- have complex relationships that on a human level deserve acknowledgement and on a legal one may require some type of proof in order to receive benefits or even hospital visitation privileges.
