The Maine Legislature also has amended other pieces of law to accommodate same-sex couples, including the Family Medical Leave Act, domestic violence laws and access to partners’ absentee ballots.īut that’s not all marriage is legally about. GLAD’s website says that in Maine custody struggles, if a non-birth or non-adoptive parent participates overwhelmingly in the parenting process, “he or she is entitled to be considered for an award of full parental rights and responsibilities.” That would suggest same-sex parents would be eligible. Maine law also says: “An adult who shares an emotional, physical and financial relationship with the patient similar to that of a spouse” can also act as a surrogate for a partner in health care situations. Another law says private health insurers must offer policies for domestic partners “under the same terms and conditions” as they offer married partners.
Let’s start with what domestic partners are promised under other pieces of law before we get to what they aren’t.Ī 2007 Maine Supreme Judicial Court interpretation of state law says same-sex couples can jointly adopt children. That, and some other things, show the law is not nearly as strong as a marriage.
But to get that, same-sex couples would have to meet some criteria that married folks don’t: Both partners must have lived in Maine for 12 months, the law says.