Do homosexuals in domestic partisanships have the same rights as those in traditional marriages? ?

There are three major differences between marriage and domestic partnerships in California:

Marriage is not a second-class status. Domestic partnerships do not reach the same legal threshold as civil unions or civil marriages and, accordingly, do not afford couples the rights, benefits, and protections of civil marriage.

You don't have to live in California to get a domestic partnership or to get married. You do not have to live in California to dissolve a domestic partnership, but if you want a California divorce, you have to live there for six months. If you are married in California, you most likely will not be able to get a divorce in your home state.

From Melanie Rowen, NCLR staff attorney: "Also, and this is very important for couples from outside of California to understand, California courts have jurisdiction to dissolve domestic partnerships regardless of where the parties live. But CA courts DO NOT have jurisdiction to dissolve a marriage unless the parties meet the residency requirements for a CA divorce. Under CA law, a judgment of dissolution of marriage may not be entered unless one of the parties to the marriage has been a resident of California for at least six months and of the county in which they are filing for divorce for the three months before they file. This means that couples from other states who come to CA to get married will be unable to obtain a divorce in the event of a later break-up unless either (a) they actually move to CA or (b) their home state decides to recognize CA marriages."

From a practical stand point. It is easier to get a domestic partnership than it is to get married in California.

From NCLR: "In order to enter into a marriage, a couple must obtain a marriage license and 'solemnize' it – this requires having a ceremony with one to two official witnesses. Couples can enter a domestic partnership by filling out and mailing in a form, the notarized Declaration of Domestic Partnership. They do not need to obtain a license, have witnesses, or 'solemnize' the partnership with a ceremony."

A commission was established to study civil unions and it has concluded that even though the intention of civil unions is to give gay and lesbian couples the same rights of marriage, in fact they do not.

The biggest area of inequality was in regards to employment benefits for spouses. Many employers refused to offer same-sex couples the same health insurance benefits as married couples.

Massachusetts is the only state in the United States to allow gay marriage and a study there found that gay couples did not have the same kinds of problems with employers and health insurance. The New Jersey commission found that people in civil unions were not treated the same way as married couples by government agencies, employers and others. One of the big issues is that people do not understand what civil unions are and how they differ from marriage.

(source Associated Press)

Marriage grants many rights and responsibilities upon a couple that aren't granted with any other single legal contract. Those who believe domestic partnerships grant the same rights as marriage are misinformed. Domestic partnerships aren't federally recognized, meaning that couples that enter into one are denied 1,138 rights granted, by the federal government, with marriage. Here's a list of these rights:

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d04353r.pdf

This lack of federal recognition also means that domestic partnerships aren't subject to the Full Faith and credit Clause of the Constitution (Article IV, Section 1), meaning that they aren't recognized outside of the state in which they occurred. Here's a link to a transcript of the Constitution:

http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitu...

Those who are fighting for same-sex marriage are fighting to have it recognized by the state and federal governments. As a legal concept, marriage refers to a contract. Nothing more. To deny a person the right to enter into a legal contract because of his or her sex is discrimination, plain and simple.

No, you do not get the same rights in a domestic partnership. You get a lot less.

I'm not sure what "normal" is but I'm pretty sure that any member of the community should have the same rights as anyone else.