By Connie Mabin
The Associated Press

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio - Doug Braun and his partner of 14 years can't wait for today when they'll go to City Hall and add their names to a registry recognizing them as domestic partners.

They'll take home a notarized application from the city, the first in the nation to create the nonbinding registry through a vote.

The couple and an estimated 100 others will walk away with a piece of paper that legally means nothing.

But to Braun, 42, and his partner, Brian DeWitt, 48, it will be the most important day of their lives.

"It's not a marriage," Braun said. "For us, it's a show of our commitment to each other, it's something concrete that we can hold on to and show all of the thousands of hours we put in to work on this."

Voters of the Cleveland suburb of 50,000 people in November approved the first ballot-box recognition for gay and straight unmarried partners by a margin of 55 percent to 45 percent.

Today - less than a week after the Legislature passed one of the country's most-far reaching gay marriage bans - the city will open the first domestic partner registry in the state.

The recognition is not marriage and it's not binding on courts, governments or private companies. But supporters hope it will make it easier for couples to share employment benefits, inherit property or get hospital visiting rights.

Opponents, including the Cleveland Heights Family First Initiative, say it's wrong for a city to legitimize a lifestyle many disagree with. A statement from the group said the registry attempts to "redefine marriage" and that "will have very serious negative effects on our society as a whole."

Keli Zehnder, 37, and her partner, Deborah Smith, 44, know that the registry won't have any legal weight. The couple of seven years has powers of attorney and wills spelling out their wishes regarding each other and their two daughters.

But Zehnder said its important that they register on the first day as a payoff for the intense campaign that led to the vote.

"This piece of paper feels more meaningful than the other stuff even though the other stuff is more valid in some ways. This is something that I worked on for 18 months," she said.

Mayor Edward Kelley said the registry issue was fought on both sides but hasn't divided the city that already weathered a similar controversy two years ago when it adopted Ohio's first municipal ordinance giving health benefits to same-sex partners of city employees.

"In Cleveland Heights, not only do we have racial diversity, we have religious diversity, we have this diversity," Kelley said.

The registration is open to all unmarried couples who live together. It costs $50 for residents and $65 for nonresidents.