 Hello, my name is Amos Meeks. I am a town meeting member from Precinct 3 and I want to introduce Article 15 which would create a domestic partnership by-law in Arlington. This by-law would allow people to register a domestic partnership if they commit to mutual support and caring, if they reside together and intend to do so indefinitely, if they share basic living expenses such as food, utilities, household goods, if they are all at least 18 years old, if they are confident to enter a contract, and if they are not married to anyone and are not closely enough related that they could not be married under state law. The idea of this essentially is that rather than a marriage which indicates more of a union between people, this is indicating a commitment to family living together in the same household. And thus, people in a domestic partnership and their dependents are treated as family in the eyes of the town. What this means is that they would have visitation rights at town-operated health care facilities, which currently there are none. They would have visitation rights at town-operated correctional facilities, such as the jail, and a child's legal parent or guardian could give their domestic partner access to the child's school records and access to the child, such as to take them out of school in case of a family emergency. And then furthermore, the term spouse, family, or marriage anywhere in the by-laws would explicitly include domestic partners. I think the main way that this would impact is such as in bereavement leave for the town employees in terms of how much leave they could get for the death of a family member. The main motion would create a fairly standard domestic partnership by-law applicable to partnerships of two people. However, we have also proposed an amendment which would allow the creation of domestic partnerships for two or more people and it would also remove section 10. This is the section that equates spouse in other parts of the by-law to domestic partners. There was concern raised about this from outside legal experts in that it may conflict with state law concerning polygamy and thus be an issue when this by-law is reviewed by the Attorney General. So for now, we've removed it and we'll probably revisit this issue later on. And to answer a few frequently asked questions, can Arlington residents register domestic partnerships in other municipalities such as Somerville? The answer is yes. So right now, anyone, you or me, could go register a domestic partnership with more than two people in the city of Somerville. However, the town of Arlington would not recognize them and so that domestic partnership would not get the rights explicitly laid out in this by-law. While Somerville and Cambridge have passed ordinances allowing more than two people, no other town in Massachusetts has done so. And so if we pass an amendment allowing more than two people to register domestic partnerships, this would go in front of the Attorney General to review. So could she strike the proposed amendments down if passed? Yes, she could. However, state law does not currently regulate domestic partnerships in any way as far as I'm aware. They essentially leave domestic partnerships entirely up to the municipalities. So there's no reason to expect her to find any conflict or issue with the amendments. Would this by-law impact the town financially in any way? No, it would not. It's solely about the rights that I mentioned before and recognizing families as families. And does this force private organizations to do anything? No. All this affects is how people in a domestic partnership are treated by the town of Arlington. Any organization outside the town of Arlington can choose whether or not to recognize the domestic partnership. So for example, healthcare insurance providers deciding whether or not a domestic partner is eligible for someone's health to benefit from someone's healthcare. Or hospitals outside of Arlington allowing visitation of people with domestic partnership within Arlington. That being said, I suspect that in many of these cases a domestic partnership registered in Arlington would- they would choose to recognize it. Thank you very much for listening and I hope that you will vote yes, both on the main motion as well as the amendment to allow domestic partnerships of more than two people.