The federal government currently offers over 1100 benefits to married couples (e.g. Social Security benefits, tax breaks, etc.) and 0 benefits to domestic partnerships. In an effort to move toward greater equality, rights of domestic partnership and rights of marriage should be the same. This would allow couples of men and women and of the same sex to enjoy the same benefits and protections offered by the federal government without continuing to question what “marriage” is.
This petition would like to completely remove the religious term “marriage” from the vocabulary of the federal government. The word marriage would be replaced with domestic partnership. In this transition domestic partnership will have all former rights that were once only available to married couples.