Marriage.

Under existing law, a reference to "husband" and "wife," "spouses," or "married persons," or a comparable term, includes persons who are lawfully married to each other and persons who were previously lawfully married to each other, as is appropriate under the circumstances of the particular case. Under existing law, registered domestic partners have the same rights, protections, and benefits, and are subject to the same responsibilities, obligations, and duties under law, whether they derive from statutes, administrative regulations, court rules, government policies, common law, or any other provisions or sources of law, as are granted to and imposed upon spouses. Existing law requires, where necessary to implement the rights of registered domestic partners, gender-specific terms referring to spouses to be construed to include domestic partners. The bill would replace references to a "husband" or "wife" with references to a "spouse," would define "spouse" as including "registered domestic partner," and would make other conforming and related changes.