Protect your rights -- protect your relationship! Now more than ever, it's important that you take the proper legal steps to define and protect your relationship in the eyes of the law. If you don't, you run the risk of being shut out of each other's lives -- and the lives of children you co-parent -- in times of medical, financial or personal crisis. This practical, plain-English guide shows lesbian and gay couples how to: make practical decisions about living together obtain domestic partner benefits make medical decisions for each other when needed take care of each other's finances when one partner is incapacitated leave property to each other have and raise children through adoption, donor insemination, surrogacy or foster parenting The 15th edition is updated with a discussion of the laws of each state offering either marriage or marriage-equivalent status, covers all the new state laws in recent months, and discusses the pros and cons of entering into a marriage or like relationship. It also includes a CD-ROM that helps living-together contracts, powers of attorney, wills and more.