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Loading ...Lambda Legal files suit to prevent Ariz. from stripping domestic partner benefits
11.17.2009 3:07pm EST
From Lambda Legal:
(Tuscon, Ariz.) Lambda Legal has filed a federal lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Tucson to block a move to strip domestic partner benefits from gay and lesbian state employees. Arizona lawmakers included a provision stripping domestic partner health benefits from state employees as part of a last-minute budget deal signed by Governor Jan Brewer in September, while retaining spousal health benefits for heterosexual workers.
Lambda Legal represents 10 state employees – including from the Arizona Highway Patrol, the State Department of Game and Fish, and state universities – who rely on health benefits from their employers to keep their families safe.“This is an issue of equal pay for equal work,” said Tara Borelli, staff attorney for Lambda Legal. ”By stripping away these vital benefits from loyal state employees, the state isn’t just paying them less for the same work than their heterosexual colleagues — it’s pulling away a vital lifeline that all workers need. This is simply cruel and saves the state next to nothing.”
State lawmakers voted over the summer to eliminate the state’s domestic partner benefits, which were adopted with the leadership of former Governor Janet Napolitano, now Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Current Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed the budget bill with the provision revoking the health insurance coverage for domestic partners.
Arizona Highway Patrol Officer Tracy Collins is lead plaintiff and relies on her work-provided health benefits to protect her partner of 11 years, Diana Forrest, and their family. ”I put my life on the line every day for the people of Arizona just by going to work,” said Collins. ”Though the stress of working a dangerous job takes a toll on my family, I’m proud to be a public servant. But losing Diana’s health coverage will put us in a desperate situation.”
“This discriminatory elimination of vital health benefits denies equal pay for equal work to a small, politically vulnerable group of dedicated public workers who perform valuable services and pay equal taxes. By stripping gay and lesbian state employees of health coverage for a domestic partner, the new law unfairly and unconstitutionally inflicts severe hardship upon a targeted group of Arizona families,” added Borelli.
This sickens me; but comes as no surprise. A civilization is judged by history, on how it treats it’s more vulnerable citizens! We are not going to look good in posterity!
I have a funny feeling that in 2,000 years, when the historians are looking back over the history of the world, the United States will be compared (and maybe not favarably) to the Roman Empire.
well fine..strip her rights, cause her hardship, force her to quit..then hope to God it wasn’t gonna be HER that was responding to your cry for help when you are getting beaten raped, or mugged or killed…all because YOU were a homophobe…smart move.
I live in AZ, and wonder if I can just vote to stop paying taxes now? If “they” can vote to stop giving me the same benefits as straight people, why can’t I just secede from the State. The new country of JonnyBoy…sounds good to me. Anyone in my country will have equal rights.
bama-stu, I have a funny feeling that Christian conservatives ignore the fact that the Roman Empire fell soon after it embraced Christianity.
It’s like it’s one thing after the other here in Arizona. i Remember when we had Prop. 102 going (to take away gay marriage) and nearly eveyone had shirts, stickers, and signs saying “yes on 102″ it was horrible.
I just hope and pray Brewer doesn’t run for Governor when this term expires in a little over a year from now. Brewer has a history of outspoken homophobia and when Napolitano announced she was accepting her Federal post and brewer would become Governor, I just knew things would go downhill for GLBTs. Sadly, this lawsuit will probably have to be taken to the Federal level before there is any hope it will succeed.
Seems to me that, if the State of Arizona really wants to save money, it’d cut benefits to str8s and keep them for Gays. There are many more dollars to be saved by cutting off the medical insurance benefits to opposite-sex couples and their families.
Can I ask what it is about the Western states that creates such a yee-haw, I’m-inbred-and-proud kind of mentality? Sure, we’ve got our bible thumpers back east, but it’s not like South Carolina expects the Tennessee River be diverted for their swimming pools and golf courses. These wingnuts in Arizona are the same ones who rant and rave about illegals–hello, you thought getting your lawn mowed in Scottsdale for $25 was possible because Arizonans are better in business than the rest of the country?
No small part of Arizona’s fiscal problems is that Phoenix in particular (meaning the entire Valley of the Sun) has a habit of overbuilding and watching its property market crash. This is the third time since the mid-80s that property values there have taken a fall of at least 20%. The only other part of the country with such consistently irresponsible performance is Florida, which is in a category of redneck craziness all by itself. In Arizona, it often runs in tandem with banking crises. Uh, state law has some say in writing mortgages. You might think that, after Arizona was hit so badly during the S&L crisis, they might take some time and clean up some of the goldrush mentality that cost taxpayers and property owners very dearly. Nope.
Yet somehow the Arizona legislature can take the time to single out gay state workers and give ‘em a hard ungreased ride.
Can’t we convince one of the Mexican drug cartels to take back the southern two-thirds of Arizona? We keep the Grand Canyon, they can have all the freaks who moved out from the East Coast and Midwest and took their petty bigotry with them. And they can have the share of water that currently goes to the Central Arizona Project (aqueduct) too.
I recall during the proposition 102 campaign seeing a couple of “no on 102″ signs pop up. They were rare, but definitely around.
They didn’t last more than a day, however.
The bigots are so entrenched here that someone actually took the time to wait for nightfall to take down the signs. So yea, the people in this state are actually trying to take away our right to free speech down here as well. No wonder it was “yes on 102″ everywhere.
I agree with you Drewski, although the drug lords are likely just as homophobic…
I wont be paying any taxes either if this actually stands. No reason for it if I’m treated worse by the state. They gotta be high on something pretty bad…