According to TMZ.com,
country singer K.D. Lang’s domestic partnership to Jamie Price has
officially been dissolved. The two met back in 2003 through a Buddhist teacher and registered for
a domestic partnership in 2009. The couple have given no reason for the split.
Although K.D. was originally from Canada, she moved to and lived with her
partner in Los Angeles, where they registered for a domestic partnership
in 2009. Domestic partnership in California is almost equivalent to a marriage.
As stated in the
California Family Code Section 297.5, it provides the couples with “the same rights, protections,
and benefits, and… the same responsibilities, obligations, and duties
under the law…” as married spouses. These benefits include property rights,
spousal support, and the ability to make health care decisions for each other. The only
difference a domestic partnership has from a marriage in California is
that the federal law in the United States does not recognize a domestic
partnership.
If the couple lived in Ontario, they would have been able to legally marry
and this marriage would have been recognized federally, throughout Canada.
Same-sex marriages in Ontario have been legal since 2001. However, same-sex
marriages were not registered until after June 10, 2003, when the Ontario
Court of Appeal declared that defining marriage in heterosexual-only terms
violated the
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
In September of 2004, the Ontario Court of Appeal declared the
Divorce Act also unconstitutional for excluding same-sex marriage. It ordered same-sex
marriages read into the act, permitting same-sex couples to divorce.
Lang and Price apparently worked out a settlement agreement where both
have waived rights to partner support. The couple have also agreed to
a clean division of property. The singer will be taking what’s hers,
including all of her bank accounts, cars, and houses, and her partner
will be taking back what belongs to her.
No support, and a clean division of property?
Hallelujah for Lang!