SALEM, Ore.—Conservative activists have argued that the domestic partnership law approved by the Oregon Legislature this year is the equivalent of allowing gay couples to marry.

But retired teacher Barbara Pinkerton wouldn’t agree.

Pinkerton recently broke up with her partner and tried to remove her “ex” as a beneficiary of her state pension benefits, to no avail.

Instead, the Oregon Public Employees Retirement System Board has ruled that only married couples are allowed to remove a beneficiary from their state pension, after a formal divorce. Gay couples do not have the right to a legal divorce.

For Pinkerton, that means she’ll get lower monthly retirement checks because some money is kept in reserve should she die before her beneficiary.

Pinkerton’s case is now on appeal to the Oregon Court of Appeals, said Brian Boyd, a spokesman for Basic Rights Oregon, the state’s leading gay right group.