What Is The Key to Getting Myself Home Again? — Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents

What Is The Key to Getting Myself Home Again?

After five weeks have passed, I’m thinking a little more down the road including finding the key to go back home. So many of my rights and liberties were taken from me or violated that I am determined to lean into every right I can, cling tightly, and keep my eyes wide open for other threats. It is a heightened sense of vigilance that I’ll probably never unlearn.

One right I have is returning to my home of 18 years and cohabitating with a formal agreement setting groundrules and boundaries that are enforced in administrative civil court. It is known as an interim consent order. I’m going to do some more writing about the PFA process and alternatives because it is important to know what you might one day need. October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month so that seems a fitting time.

While I wait for the order, I’m still not able to return to my home because I can’t get a key to the changed locks. That’s a very difficult thing to reconcile. How can no one have the authority to get me back into my home? I have multiple legal rights — I lived there for 18 years, I am married to the person on the deed and we were registered domestic partners for 17 years. The PFA says I have the write…