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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (April 16, 2004)
il lì I U h apt! 16.2QQ4 ' news j V cíií Jßacatian LOCALLY OWNED A OPERATED Jieme D ‘ clwvud T he lawsuit asks the court to declare Florida’s law ban ning same-sex marriage unconstitutional. The com plaint names six couples, mostly local, who had been turned away by the clerk of the courts office when they attempted to file for a mar riage license. “Key West is a wonderful ly accepting place where everyone respects my rela tionship with my partner. But when Steven and I leave the island, that sense of secu rity disappears. We don’t feel comfortable holding hands for fear of being verbally or even physically harassed,” said the Rev. Geoff Leonard- Robinson, pastor of Key W est’s M etropolitan C om munity Church. “Part of the Prudential Financial has denied medical insurance coverage for reason 1 think people are retiree Laurel Awishus’ spouse, Kathy Adelsheim, even though com dem .. couple ■ are legally t u married • . . . . fortable . . . onstrating ® the their bigotry is because our — state government fosters it through discrimina its members would be harmed directly by the tory laws.” outcome of the case. "We are very pleased by the court’s ruling,” NEW MEXICO said Shannon Minter, National C enter for Les Q aying that Prudential Financial’s denial of bian Rights legal director. “This case is about O benefits to the spouse of a New Mexico les real families who are harmed by being denied bian retiree is baseless and uncharacteristic, the right to marry. T he couples who brought this Lambda Legal last m onth formally asked the lawsuit are entitled to their day in court without company to reconsider the decision. undue interference by an outside group with no A fter her marriage in C anada, Laurel direct interest in the case. The court correctly Awishus, who worked for the company for 20 found that merely having a political interest in years, sought to enroll her partner of nearly 22 an issue does not meet the legal standard for years, Kathy Adelsheim, in the medical benefits intervention.” program offered to the company’s retirees and spouses. Prudential Financial offers benefits to the domestic partners of gay and lesbian n a sure sign that supporters of equal marriage employees but says it only offers those benefits rights have momentum on their side, state in retirement if they retired after Jan. 1, 2000. Sen. Pete Knight, Straight spouses are entitled to benefits regard R-Palmdale, author of less of retirement date. Proposition 22, Califor “W hen Ms. Awishus and her wife married nia’s law designed to pre in C anada, they becam e spouses and are e n ti vent recognition of same- tled to benefits o th e r spouses enjoy,” attorney sex marriages performed Brian C hase said. "P rudential F in an cial’s in other states, now says action in this m atter is a departure from their he would “support some treatm ent of gay and lesbian employees in the thing short of marriage” . M Pete Knight for gay and lesbian cou past. Prudential Financial is partly using the Inter ples if advocates would give up on equal mar nal Revenue Service’s definition of whether the riage recognition. women are married to justify its decision. Lamb “The fact that Sen. Knight, a man who has da Legal says that rationale is flawed because the spent many years fighting to prevent families IRS does not decide who is married. headed by lesbian and gay couples from obtain “O ne of the reasons I’m in this precarious ing any legal rights, has shifted his position spot is that 19 years ago I moved with Laurel to demonstrates his acknowledgment that most New Jersey when the company transferred her,” Californians do not support his extreme posi tion,” said Geoffrey Kors, Equality California Adelsheim said. “I left a promising career behind— that included benefits. I wasn’t treat executive director. “His move towards allowing ed like a spouse then because we weren’t mar rights and benefits for same-sex couples in ried. Now we’re married, and that should be exchange for our accepting some form of second-class status for our relationships is a cleaV respected.” sign that he realizes that the march towards CALIFORNIA equality cannot be stopped.” uling from the bench after hearing ex ten Just last year, Knight lost a preliminary sive oral arguments from both sides, Supe injunction he filed in a suit to stop California’s rior C ourt Judge James L. W arren denied the groundbreaking domestic partner law from request of the Proposition 22 Legal Defense going into effect and failed to gamer sufficient and Education Fund to participate as a party in signatures to put that measure on the ballot in a lawsuit seeking the right of same-sex couples an attem pt to overturn it. “The fact that the to marry. politician who has been the leader of the move Woo vs. Lockyer— filed on behalf of six ment to deny same-sex couples legal recognition is now willing to accept domestic partnership same-sex couples, Equality California and Our Families Coalition— argues that denying gay demonstrates that the entire debate has shifted and that we are heading in the right direction,” men and lesbians the right to marry violates the Kors said. j n California C onstitution’s guarantees of equality, liberty and privacy. 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