SALT LAKE CITY — Despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, Salt Lake City will not end its once-controversial mutual commitment registry.
In 2008, Mayor Ralph Becker created the registry for same-sex couples, non-married heterosexual couples and others to “recognize relationships of mutual commitment, support, and caring.” Business could use the registry to determine eligibility for benefits.
Becker’s spokesman, Art Raymond, said the registry will remain because some who are not in a same-sex marriage have signed up for it. Since its inception, 99 couples have signed up. In 2013, the Salt Lake County Council voted to create a similar registry.
The registry earned the wrath of legislators, who objected to its original name of “domestic partnership” and claimed it violated Utah’s Amendment 3, which defined marriage as between a man and a woman and did not recognize anything else. In 2013, a federal judge (and later the 10th Circuit Court) declared Amendment 3 unconstitutional, clearing the way for same-sex marriage in Utah.
