holding-hands-image1ALBUQUERQUE — It’s been almost two months since domestic partnership legislation failed by an 8-vote margin in the New Mexico Senate. But since then, the New Mexico Independent has learned that a committee appointed by New Mexico’s Catholic archbishop has been charged with seeking out a potential compromise with backers of the original bill.

The effort is significant not only because it might pave the way toward legislation that could win majority support in a special session Gov. Bill Richardson has said he plans to call, but because there’s only been one case before where a Roman Catholic diocese in the United States supported a proposed domestic partnership bill. That happened in Maine several years ago.

“We haven’t really started talking details yet,” Linda Siegel, a lobbyist with Equality New Mexico, the state’s major gay-rights organization, told the Independent. “But I’m cautiously optimistic.”

The outlines of the would-be compromise have already surfaced, but the very presence of the new committee — comprised of Catholic priests, at least one lawyer, a state senator as well as Siegel — would appear to give the effort new momentum.

As previously reported, Catholic leaders in the state have objected to language in the original bill that referred back to Section 40 of the New Mexico statutes — the provision in state law that establishes marriage as a civil contract. A new bill would separately list the rights and responsibilities of a domestic partnership with no reference to Section 40.

Asked if a new version of the legislation along these lines would be acceptable, Siegel paused before answering.

“Probably,” she said. “We don’t really care how it’s structured so long as it gives the same rights as marriage.”

Another member of the new committee is Allen Sanchez, a lobbyist for the New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops. He describes the negotiations as only just beginning.

“We’re really in the listening mode right now,” he told the Independent. “The bishop always wants to be reasonable.”

As for the committee itself, Sanchez described it as “an ad hoc committee, to get feedback and to explore.”

The politics of marriage is never far away in such exploration, but there does seem to be an interest in sketching what would-be partnership rights would look like — as opposed to spousal rights.

“It would list out rights, burial rights, probate rights, hospital visitation,” Sanchez speculated. “You would end up with a big fat bill, one that would be 100 pages long. It would have its own section in the code.”

Sanchez emphasizes that none of those details have been put down on paper. Meanwhile, Siegel says the next step is for the Legislative Council Service to draft a new bill as a starting point for more substantive negotiations.

Still, Sanchez offers another caveat. “Let me make it clear: the bishops would never support cohabitation of anybody, same sex or heterosexual. They wouldn’t support anything that promoted cohabitation … But how much of what you believe, do you legislate?” Sanchez asked rhetorically. “We don’t come here to impose, we come to propose.”

Meanwhile, the very idea of negotiations between gay rights advocates like Siegel and representatives of Archbishop Michael Sheehan has already stoked some controversy.

Barbara Wold, the openly lesbian blogger behind Democracy for New Mexico, has been critical of early efforts toward crafting a compromise.

“Many people are still mistrustful and even angry about GLBT leaders negotiating with the Catholic Church to find ‘consensus,’ ” Wold wrote in an e-mail to the Independent. She added: “It’s difficult for me and others to imagine a bill would please the Church, yet provide all we need.”

Wold also cites a lack of communication during the regular legislative session between “EQNM, the lobbyists and the GLBT community” that she argues contributed to some of the mistrust.

Earlier this month, Gov. Bill Richardson told the Independent that he supports the efforts to reach a compromise between New Mexico’s Catholic Church and the state’s gay community.

And Seigal, the EQNM lobbyist, dismisses criticism that the very idea of such negotiations is cause for concern.

“As a professional lobbyist, I negotiate with people who oppose me on all kinds of issues,” she explained. “It’s just what you do if you want to achieve certain goals. I know members of our community are concerned because they feel betrayed by the Catholic Church. But I think their efforts are sincere at this moment.”