From: buckmr@marcus.its.rpi.edu (Ron Buckmire)
Subject: Re: Limited "Domestic Partnership" for NYC
Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1993 02:06:17 GMT

rizzoe@FASECON.ECON.NYU.EDU (Emily Rizzo) writes:


>The following story appeared in today's (1/8/93) New York Times:
Thanks for typing this in, Emily!!


>ORDERS BY DINKINS TO BROADEN RIGHTS OF `DOMESTIC PARTNERS'

>    
>     By Alan Finder

>Mayor David N. Dinkins moved yesterdays to give unmarried heterosexual
>and homosexual couples in New York City some of the rights enjoyed by
>married couples.
[Yay! Or better, "It's about time!"]
>Through an executive order, the Mayor created a city registry in which
>city residents or nonresident municipal workers who live together could
>register as unmarried "domestic partners."  A second executive order 
>detailed several ways in which such partners will now be treated the same
>as married spouses by the city.
>Registered domestic partners who work for the city will be entitled to the 
>same unpaid leave that has long been available to married city workers to 
>care for a new child.
>And all registered partners, whether or not they work for the city, will
>have the same visitation rights at municipal hospitals and city jails as
>married spouses.  They will also have the same standing as married 
>couples in qualifying for apartments and in inheriting a lease in 
>residential buildings owned or overseen by city housing agencies.

Notice that these 'rights' that the Mayor's executive orders spell out don't
actually COST the city anything. This is really the cheapo version of the bill
that would actually cost the city. THAT version would be the one that extends
full medical/dental benefits to domestic partners....

>But his actions yesterday had both broad symbolic importance and 
>considerable political significance.  He received strong support from 
>gay and lesbian voters in the 1989 campaign, and had promised to grant
>to the live-in partners of homosexual city employees the same health
>benefits offered to spouses of married city workers.
>But he said yesterday that he could not grant these benefits without 
>City Council approval, and he endorsed a Council bill that would do
>precisely that.
>Many representatives of gay and lesbian organizations who joined the
>Mayor for his announcement at a City Hall news conference described
>his endorsement of the Council bill and his two executive orders as
>major steps.
>But Ms. Ettelbrick and many of the more than two dozen representatives
>of gay and lesbian groups who worked with mayoral advisers to formulate 
>the two executive orders said Mr. Dinkins had not gone far enough.  They 
>said they would keep fighting until the city granted full health benefits
>to the partners of homosexual city workers.
>Some argued that Mr. Dinkins had the legal right to grant medical benefits
>on his own, while others said the Mayor would not have fulfilled his 
>campaign pledge until he settled a lawsuit filed four years ago by three
>homosexual teachers seeking to force the city to offer health benefits to 
>their live-in partners.
Which the Gay Teachers Association has *WON* in its first hearing, but the 
City is threatening to appela. If the City settles, same-sex couples would
have full health benefits immediatey.

>"I think a lot of people in the gay and lesbian community will be dis-
>appointed by this, and they will want full benefits,"  said Councilman Thomas
>K. Duane, Democrat of Manhattan, the first openly gay Council member.  Mr.
>Duane is a member of the Mayor's working group but did not attend the news
>conference.  He said afterward and he would be not be satisfied until Mr.
>Dinkins granted full health benefits and settled the lawsuit.
>But the Mayor said he could not settle the lawsuit because of complex legal
>reasons.  One legal hurdle, he said, was a ruling by the State Insurance
>Department that forbids health insurance companies to grant benefits to 
>unmarried domestic partners.
Uh-huh. Right.

>About 25 other cities and counties in the United States have either 
>created domestic partnerships or offer some forms of parental leave or 
>medical benefits for domestic partners of unmarried government workers.
>The cities include San Francisco, Seattle, Minneapolis, Washington, Berkeley,
>Calif., and Madison, Wis.

For a full list see /pub/QRD/qrd/dp on nifty.andrew.cmu.edu. :-)
-- 
Ron Buckmire
Association To Save Madonna From Nuclear War [New York Chapter]
11 Colvin Circle, Troy, NY 12180
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