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A Georgia court upholds Atlanta’s partnership registry and
right to ban discrimination against gay men and lesbians,
but strikes down benefits
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R ic h a r d S h u m a te
B
The court’s ruling against partnership benefits
y a 4-to-3 vote, the Georgia Supreme
was based on technicalities in Georgia law. The
Court struck down an Atlanta ordi
majority held that the city council exceeded its
nance that granted insurance benefits
authority by improperly rewriting the definition
to the domestic partners of city em
of what constitutes a legal dependent— some
ployees.
thing only the legislature can do. But supporters
But the court, in deciding a wide-ranging
believe the council can rewrite the law to over
assault on the city’s sexual minority rights protec
come the court’s concern.
tions brought last year by conservative activists,
“What they told us was that we wrote it wrong,
upheld the city’s ordinance allowing unmarried
not that we couldn’t have [partnership benefits],”
people— gay or straight—to register as domestic
Pellegrini said.
partners. It also upheld an ordinance forbidding
City Councilwoman Mary Davis, who spon
discrimination based on sexual orientation by city
sored the partnership ordinances when they were
government, on city property, or by operators of
narrowly approved in August 1993, vowed to
bars and taxicabs, which are regulated by the city.
reintroduce the measures. Mayor Bill Campbell,
And in a decision released on March 14, six of
who voted for them when he was a member of the
the court’s seven members went out of their way
council two years ago, also expressed support.
to reject the notion that measures outlawing dis
crimination amount to giving gay men and lesbi
However, whether partnership benefits can
get through the coun
ans “special rights.”
cil again is an open
Despite the rejec
In a decision released on March question because
tion o f partnership
benefits, rights activ
there was substantial
14, six of the court's seven
turnover on the coun
ists said that, overall,
the court’s action was members went out of their way to cil during city elec
more positive than
reject the notion that measures tions in November
negative.
1993. On the plus side
outlawing discrimination amount for
“It’s the first time
partnership sup
to giving gay men and lesbians porters, however, is
in this state that we
have a validation of
the fact that the two
“special rights. ”
our relatio n sh ip s,”
strongest opponents
says Larry Pellegrini,
of the ordinances the
the lobbyist for GAPAC, a gay and lesbian politi
last time around are no longer on the council.
cal group, in reference to the partnership registry.
The legal challenge to the city’s three lesbian
Some of the language in the majority’s deci
and gay rights measures was brought by the
sion also indicated that those justices would not
Southeastern Legal Foundation, a conservative
look favorably upon m easures sim ilar to
public-interest law firm, on behalf of a group of
Colorado’s Amendment 2. That was good news
plaintiffs led by State Rep. Billy McKinney, a
for the state’s gay men and lesbians because,
liberal Democrat who has long been a strident
although Georgia doesn’t currently allow such
opponent of measures protecting lesbians and gay
initiatives, a bill to open up the ballot to public
men. Ironically, he is the father of U.S. Rep.
initiative is pending in the legislature.
Cynthia McKinney, a Georgia Democrat who is
The battle over partnership benefits will now
one of the strongest supporters of sexual minority
rights measures in Congress.
shift back to the Atlanta City Council. Armed
McKinney claimed victory after the court’s
with the Supreme Court’s ruling, supporters of
the measure plan to rewrite the ordinance so that
ruling, calling domestic partnership benefits ordi
it will survive future court attacks.
nances “repulsive.”
it 4
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