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News :: Civil & Human Rights |
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Champaign City Council Extends Health Insurance and Leave Benefits to City Employees in Same-Sex Domestic Partnerships |
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by Kimberlie Kranich
Email: kakranich (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified!) |
04 Oct 2005
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The Champaign City Council by a 9-0 vote tonight passed a bill that extends health insurance coverage and family and bereavement leave to city employees in same-sex domestic partnerships. These benefits do not extend to city employees in opposite-sex domestic partnerships or to unionized city employees. The council passed the bill without comment. |
Unlike married couples, city employees in same-sex domestic partnerships will pay federal taxes for this new benefit.
This new policy is different from an insurance reimbursement plan as it allows the employee to add her same-sex domestic partner directly to her insurance. Insurance reimbursement plans, like that offered to employees in same-sex domestic partnerships at the U of I, require the employee’s same-sex domestic partner to obtain her or his own insurance and in cases of pre-existing conditions, the partner may be denied coverage. There’s also a lot more paperwork for the employee and her or his partner with the reimbursement plan.
Extending health insurance coverage and leave benefits is both the least and the most the city can offer its employees in same-sex domestic partnerships. It is the least the city can do because in so doing it is in compliance with the law, both its own city law and the new state law. It is the most the city can do because same-sex couples are legally barred by state law from marrying each other and Illinois does not recognize the marriage licenses of same-sex couples from other countries or the state of Massachusetts.
This small step is a step in the right direction. It’s what the city can do to help its gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered employees in same-sex domestic partnerships feel as valued as their married heterosexual counterparts.
Imagine not being able to take time off from work to care for your dying husband or wife? This is a nightmare your lesbian, gay and bisexual employees in same-sex relationships think about and want to protect against. Why make an employee choose between her job and her loved one?
I believe that Champaign City Council should have included city employees in opposite-domestic partnerships and I asked for them to amend their ordinance to do that. Human Kinetics, Parkland College and the City of Urbana offer their domestic partner benefits to both same-and-opposite-sex employees.
Legally, Champaign’s Human Rights Ordinance defines “sexual preference” as “male or female homosexuality, heterosexuality or bisexuality, by preference or practice.” The city could face a lawsuit by denying the same benefit to city employees in opposite-sex domestic partnerships.
There’s been a flurry of legal advances for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered residents in Illinois, and Champaign and Urbana specifically.
This summer, the governor signed legislation outlawing discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in housing, credit, public accommodations and employment. It took 30 years of grassroots organizing, lobbying and lawmaking to arrive at that point. Nearly thirty years ago, Champaign and Urbana each passed their own Human Rights Ordinances that made discrimination based on sexual orientation illegal in the same four categories.
Within the last year, the city of Urbana extended family medical and bereavement leave to the same-sex and opposite sex domestic partners of city employees. Also this year, Parkland College began offering health insurance to the same-sex and opposite-sex domestic partners of its employees.
This summer, Carle Clinic and Hospital started offering family medical and bereavement leave to its employees in same-sex domestic partner relationships. Carle’s change in policy came after the Urbana Human Relations Commission ruled that the hospital had violated the civil rights of former pediatric nurse manager Lynn Sprout by firing her after she came out while caring for her dying same-sex partner of 18 years. Ms. Sprout’s staff donated their sick leave to Ms. Sprout so that she could attend the funeral of her partner because Ms. Sprout had run out of vacation time and Carle offered no family medical or bereavement leave for lesbian employees such as Ms. Sprout. Ms. Sprout settled her case out of court and the legal fees incurred by Carle combined with Ms. Sprout’s settlement cost the hospital at least one hundred thousand dollars and the city of Urbana tens of thousands of dollars.
The City of Urbana has already established a domestic partner registry. This registry is a legal registry not limited to Urbana city employees or Urbana residents. Seventeen same-sex couples and one opposite-sex couple registered as domestic partners during an August 31 celebration at Urbana City Hall. |
This work is in the public domain. |
