Activists in Inver Grove Heights move to derail domestic partner registry

Photo: Michael Ruiz, Flickr

The Inver Grove Heights City Council is considering a domestic partner registry, a mostly symbolic move that would provide proof of a couple’s domestic partnership in some insurance situations or public accommodations, but conservative activists are threatening to marshall the city’s pastors to block the move.

In a public comment period at Monday night’s city council meeting, Ted Trenzeluk, a Republican activist, threatened to rally the city’s pastors to lobby the council if they didn’t drop the measure immediately.

Trenzeluk printed pages off the website of OutFront Minnesota, the state’s largest LGBT advocacy organization, about domestic partner registries and handed them to the council to back up his argument that the registry is just one step on the way to full marriage rights for gay people.

“This is not a website I go to often,” he joked.

Trenzeluk said the domestic partner registry, which would be open to all couples regardless of gender, was merely a plot to get gay marriage passed in Minnesota.

“Make no mistake the main purpose of this type of legislation is a salvo in the lead up to the marriage amendment that is going to be up next year,” Trenzeluk said. “The city should not be used as a pawn in somebody’s political agenda.”

Trenzeluk was referring to a constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage which will be on the ballot in 2012. The registry is being proposed in the city, in part, because same-sex couples currently cannot marry, form a civil union or enter into a publicly recognized domestic partnership under current Minnesota law.

“I’d like you are to consider killing this because my personal promise to you is that I will call every pastor in Inver Grove Heights” if the council doesn’t vote down the measure, he said.

Trenzeluk is a delegate at large for the Republican Party in the 2nd Congressional District. His presentation seemed to have swayed at least one vote on the council.

Dennis Madden said the registry might represent “a complete change in our laws and morals in this county.”

“This may change my mind,” Madden said of the materials Trenzeluk handed out. “If this is just a step in that direction, I’m opposed 100 percent. When I see this kind of stuff going on in my country, I don’t like it.”

Several other residents testified against the registry saying it would lead to the breakdown of the family.

The council voted to table the proposed ordinance for a future date.

So far, 14 communities have approved of domestic partner registries including Shoreview, Minneapolis, Duluth, St. Paul, Edina, Golden Valley, Rochester, Maplewood, Richfield, St. Louis Park, Robbinsdale, Hopkins, Red Wing and Falcon Heights.