Where’s the Pre-Nup?
UGH.
Randy is interested in signing on to my dental benefits because it provides double the coverage he could get from his plan at work. To do so, Harvard wants us to go to city hall and complete paperwork declaring us domestic partners.
As I began looking into this, I noticed Harvard’s specific requirements. Apparently, if you filled out the domestic partnership registration forms for a previous relationship, you have to go to city hall and have that union terminated “legally” before you can enter into a new one.
And I was in a relationship with Matt for nearly 10 years…and we were registered in the city of Boston (this was years before anybody could have fathomed that same-sex couples could actually get married some day).
So, yesterday I went to Boston City Hall to terminate my domestic partnership (a partnership that ended over three years ago). I should also mention that Randy has been telling me I should do this for the past year – but it’s just so inconvenient since city hall is only open while I’m at work. Anyway, I filled out the “domestic partnership termination form” and headed to city hall to drop it off.
When Matt and I registered as domestic partners it cost us $25.00. To terminate this document cost me $62.00!
SIXTY-TWO DOLLARS!
I spent $62.00 to terminate a document that essentially provided me nothing but eligibility to add somebody to my medical/dental benefits (not necessarily a benefit for me personally since I get taxed up the ass for this “benefit”) and hospital visitation rights within the city.
Considering Matt and I broke up with him owing me $5,000.00…and considering we’ve been broken up for over three years already and he’s living 3,000 miles away (where I couldn’t visit him in a hospital), I just wasted $62.00 on nothing.
What pisses me off even more is that a marriage license only costs $50.00 in the city of Boston. It costs more to register as (or terminate from) being domestic partners than it does to be married…which provides countless more benefits. What’s up with that?
*photo found on Joe Dunckley’s flickr gallery.
2 Comments
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Isn’t $62 still significantly cheaper than a full-blown divorce? Plus, you don’t need a lawyer and a six month waiting period. It sounds pretty clean and easy.
Mark said before I did! 😉 Ain’t nuttin’ cheap about a D-I-V-O-R-C-E.