A domestic partnership registry approved in Clayton last week has been greeted with tepid response from the local community.

The legislation passed by the city’s board of aldermen on Wednesday entitles monogamous partners, regardless of sexual orientation, to the same rights as married couples at all city-owned facilities.

To be eligible, couples must be 18 or older and have lived in Clayton for six months. Partners must also be mentally competent, monogamous, not related to each other and committed to staying together.

The process involves going to the city clerk’s office, signing an affidavit and paying the $50 registry fee. A similar registry has already been in place in University City, Olivette and St. Louis.

Some local LGBT groups have expressed support for the change, though City Clerk June Waters noted that as of Friday afternoon, no one had actually come to her office to be added to the list.

“I wasn’t expecting people to come show up the next day, [but] I think people will come when they have the time,” she said. “I just assume that people will come in as soon as they get a chance to.”

Sophomore Vinita Chaudhry, co-president of Pride Alliance, said while that type of legislation may be beneficial, it typically does not go far enough to create equal rights for all couples.

“It’s good to hear about civil unions and domestic partnership registries [that] allow for legal rights that married couples get legally, but it’s still not the same,” she said. “It’s having all the rights of legal marriage (that matters).”

She doubts the registry will actually affect people at the University.

“Unless people are graduating and planning to stay in this area and they want rights with whoever they’re with…I’m not sure it would affect students much,” she said.

Junior Jenea Nixon, the group’s other co-president said that while she disagrees with the institution of marriage as a whole, she thinks such laws may be a helpful and realistic way to achieve equal rights for LGBT individuals.

“I personally don’t believe in the idea of marriage because it’s an exclusive design that only exists to give certain people rights and [others] not,” she said. “[But] I think it would just be easier to give people marriage than just to take it away completely, especially when children are involved.”

Waters said the legislation stemmed from a change to the city’s housing code last November, which prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

“Then they wanted to expand it to offer Clayton residents the opportunity to formalize their domestic partnership and to have that status recognized [by all] civil facilities dependent on family status, for example family memberships.”

The board of alderman’s vote on Wednesday was unanimous.

“The board was very supportive,” Waters said. “[It] was very in favor of getting this on the agenda and not dragging it out.”