Word: gays
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Since as much as 40% of a worker's compensation comes in the form of fringe benefits, the issue is partly one of economic equity: Is it fair to provide more for a married employee than for a gay colleague who does the same work? There is also a larger moral issue. Health plans, pension programs and inheritance laws are designed to accommodate the traditional family. But nowadays, only 27% of U.S. households consist of two parents with children, down from 40% in 1970. Is the goal of encouraging traditional families therefore obsolete? Is it discriminatory...
Although the drive for domestic-partnership legislation partly reflects the changing priorities of the gay-rights movement, the new rights being proposed would be available to heterosexual couples as well. Of the nation's 91 million households, 2.6 million are inhabited by unmarried couples of the opposite sex. Only 1.6 million households involve unmarried couples of the same sex. These figures include a disparate array of personal arrangements: young male- female couples living together before getting married, elderly friends who decide to share a house, platonic roommates and romantic gay or straight lovers. Among those whose emotional and financial relationship...
Still, the most ardent support for partnership rights comes from gay groups. For them the issue is more pressing: heterosexual couples at least have the option to wed if they wish to be eligible for family benefits, but gays do not. (Denmark in October became the only industrial nation to allow registered gay partnerships.) In addition, the spread of AIDS has raised the importance for gays of medical coverage, bereavement-leave policies, pension rules, hospital visitation rights and laws giving family members the authority to make medical decisions and funeral arrangements. "We are not talking about symbols here," says Thomas...
...Seattle the city's human rights department ruled in June that the AAA automobile club of Washington had illegally discriminated on the basis of marital status by refusing to grant associate membership to a gay man's domestic partner. A city law that could require health plans to provide insurance benefits to domestic partners has been shelved while officials await clarification of an Internal Revenue Service ruling that suggests that these benefits might be considered taxable...
...York City three gay teachers are suing the board of education for the right to include their companions in their group health plans, citing a state law prohibiting employment discrimination based on marital status...