EDGE Boston

A judge on Tuesday refused to block a proposed ballot initiative on expanded domestic partnership benefits for gay couples in Washington state.

As local activists prepare for Nevada’s domestic partnership law to take effect on Oct. 1, Secretary of State Ross Miller will participate in a Las Vegas forum on Sept. 14 about how same-sex couples can register.

A referendum on an expansion of Washington’s domestic partnership law for gay couples has qualified for the November ballot, election officials said Monday.

Aug. 24, 2009, was the first day Nevadan same-sex couples (and others) could begin registering in advance of a statewide domestic partnership law.

Wisconsin’s attorney general said Friday he will not defend a new law that grants same-sex couples spousal benefits such as hospital visitation and inheritance, saying lawmakers went against voters’ decision not to extend such privileges.

The Nevada secretary of state’s office will take applications starting next week from couples who wish to register as domestic partners.

The ink making Wisconsin’s domestic-partnership law legal was barely dry when a ’pro-family’ group started a court fight. But supporters believe the law will survive a legal test.

Same-sex couples in Wisconsin have started signing up for the state’s new domestic partnership registry.

Sponsors of a campaign to overturn Washington state’s domestic partnership law turned in their petition signatures Saturday and said they believe they have enough to force a public vote.

The city council of St. Paul, Minnesota, joined two other cities in that state in approving a resolution to extend domestic partnerships on July 22.