Around the Nation

FRANKFORT, Ky. - The sponsor of a controversial bill to ban unmarried couples from becoming foster or adoptive parents acknowledged the bill is dead, reported the Louisville Journal-Courier. "It's too late," Sen. Gary Tapp, R-Shelbyville, said of Senate Bill 68, which was voted out of committee last week but still hasn't been called for a floor vote. "It didn't go anywhere this session." Tapp said he didn't know why the Senate's Republican leadership didn't schedule a vote on SB 68. "I quit asking," he said. ...

INCLINE Village, Nv. - In a 4-1 vote the Incline Village General Improvement District Board of Trustees reinstated health benefits for domestic partners of district employees. The vote came after the board revoked the same benefits in a 3-2 vote Feb. 25. "Thank you for reconsidering this," said River Coyote, an Incline Village woman who married her partner of 11 years in May 2007 shortly after the California Supreme Court overturned a ban against gay marriage. "It takes a lot of courage to listen when you knew you were coming in here to a lot of people who were upset." About 60 people attended the meeting with Coyote, many spoke about equality and fairness — a message the two trustees who voted against the Feb. 25 motion mirrored. ...

OLYMPIA, Wa. - Same-sex domestic partners would have all of the rights and benefits that Washington offers married couples under a measure passed by the state Senate. Supporters of the bill said it offers same-sex couples fairness that has been denied them under the state's 1998 Defense of Marriage Act, which restricts marriage to unions between a man and woman. "You have denied us that right," said bill sponsor Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, one of six openly gay lawmakers in the Legislature. "Do not deny us the right to care for our families and build our lives." The bill passed on a mostly party-line 30-18 vote Tuesday night and now heads to the House. The Senate rejected two Republican amendments, including one that would have sent the measure to voters. The bill expands on previous domestic partnership laws by adding reference to partnerships alongside all remaining areas of state law where currently only married couples are mentioned, statutes ranging from labor and employment to pensions and other public employee benefits.