From: buckmr@rpi.edu (Ron Buckmire)
Newsgroups: soc.motss
Subject: UPI: NYC Mayor endorses compromise Domestic Partnership bill
Date: 9 Jan 93 01:30:05 GMT
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Copyright 1993 by UPI.
Reposted with permission from the ClariNet Electronic Newspaper newsgroup
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	NEW YORK (UPI) -- Mayor David Dinkins, in a change of heart, endorsed
a bill Thursday to grant city workers in gay and other unmarried
relationships the same employment benefits enjoyed by married employees.
	At the same City Hall news conference, flanked by activists for the
disabled and elderly as well as gay leaders, Dinkins also announced two
executive orders supporting city workers in unmarried relationships,
effective March 1.
	While lauded by the activists and municipal labor chief Stanley Hill,
Dinkins' actions later were criticized as too timid for not also
ordering health insurance and other financial perks for unmarried city
workers.
	In the past, Dinkins has said such benefits for city workers had to
be won at the bargaining table.
	Dinkins Thursday blamed the state insurance superintendent, who has
ruled that insurers cannot be forced to write policies that include
domestic partners.
	``So today, I have sent a letter to Superintendent Salvatore Curiale
asking him to review and reconsider that decision. It is time for us to
become more aggressive and more creative in seeking a solution to this
issue,'' he said.
	Longtime gay rights activist Eleanor Cooper called the action 
``historic'' and commended Dinkins, as did numerous city councilmembers,
Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger and city Controller Elizabeth
Holtzman.
	``I did examine the issue of cost,'' Holtzman said. ``The city of
Seattle extended health care coverage, including dental care to domestic
partners in May 1990....health care costs were increased only 1.6
percent.''
	Dinkins for months resisted pressure by activists from the gay and
disabled communities to endorse Intro. 277, that would grant broad new
domestic partner benefits for city workers, which he said would cost up
to $75 million.
	Now, in an election year, prospects for the bill are considered poor,
but proving that politics makes strange bedfellows, Dinkins now is
pushing a bill whose prime sponsor is his rival City Council President
Andrew Stein.
	Stein welcomed Dinkins' support but criticized him for fighting a
legal battle with a gay teachers group seeking gay partner employment
benefits.
	``The city should immediately drop its shameful opposition to the
lawsuit and, as a first step toward citywide domestic partnership, grant
health coverage to the partners of these city employees.'' Stein said
	Dinkins seemed to soften his stance in the case, saying that
Assistant Corporation Counsel George Daniels was seeking a way to settle
it.
	Besides gay couples, the orders could help other couples who do not
marry because marital status would decrease social security benefits.
	One of Dinkins' orders established a city registry where unmarried
couples could file notice of their relationship with the city clerk, who
would issue them a certificate ``suitable for framing,'' said Daniels.
	The other order extended apartment succession rights, city hospital
and jail visitation rights and unpaid childcare leave to city workers in
registered domestic partnerships.
	The order also continued bereavement leave for such couples, as was
granted by former Mayor Edward Koch.
	Dinkins cited Census Bureau reports, saying there were 2.6 million
households with unmarried heterosexual couples and 1.6 million with gay
couples in the city.
	Paula Ettelbrick, an attorney for the gay legal rights group, Lambda
Legal Defense and Education Fund, said the executive orders could help
workers for private employers trying to win domestic partner benefits.
	Dinkins, she said, could use more creative insurance plans to create
such benefits for city workers but they could cost the city more money.

   
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RON BUCKMIRE, 11 Colvin Circle, Troy, NY 12180-3735. ``BOYCOTT COLORADO!''
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