Domestic partners eligible for pensions in Atlanta

Atlanta Journal-Constitution ^ | 3/26/6 | Jeffry Scott

[Crackingham]

When Atlanta sought to institute domestic partnership health benefits for city employees during the 1990s, a battle raged in and out of court for six years before the measure took effect. Last week, when Mayor Shirley Franklin extended those benefits to include city pensions, the noise was no louder than the sound of her pen scratching her signature on a new city law.

While the issue of gay marriage is being fought in courtrooms in at least seven states — and in Georgia in 2004, voters overwhelming passed an amendment making gay marriage illegal — governments are quietly and increasingly extending marriage benefits to unmarried couples.

Four municipalities in metro Atlanta have followed the city's lead in extending benefits to unmarried couples: DeKalb County, Fulton County, Decatur and, in June, East Point.

According to the national gay rights organization the Human Rights Campaign, about 130 city and county governments, and 11 states, grant health benefits to domestic partners. In Colorado and Alaska, legislators are debating passage of domestic partnership benefits laws.

Atlanta City Councilwoman Anne Fauver, who authored the measure, campaigned last fall on the promise to expand the city's domestic partnership benefits.

The Atlanta City Council could pass it unanimously little uproar from opponents because the battle over domestic rights already had been won, said Jack Senterfitt, staff attorney with Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, which advocates for gay rights.

"A lot of people just assumed that, with domestic partnership benefits, that included pensions," said Senterfitt. "This is really about just tying up the loose ends."

But just because there was no outcry over the action doesn't mean everyone approves, said Sadie Fields, state chairman of Christian Coalition of Georgia. "We are against giving benefits to unmarried couples," she said. "Regardless of how the mayor or the culture of the city council attempts to redefine marriage, it can not be redefined as God intended it. It's the union of one man and one woman and intended for procreation."

Last week in Atlanta, Ken Gillett, deputy director of the City of Atlanta Office of Parks, became one of the first city employees to sign up for the pension program that will make his partner of 33 years, Ken Kreuzburg, 55, eligible to collect in the event of Gillett's death.

The couple already had signed up for the city's health benefits. The pension, said Gillett, will protect them financially as if, despite state law, they were married.

"We are truly in an enduring relationship," said Gillett, 57. "As a part of that, we are concerned about each other's well-being in the event something happens. This allows us to look to the future and plan in a way we couldn't before."

[DBeers]

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Domestic partners eligible for pensions in Atlanta

Domestic partners -what an odd term the leftists employ to sell the homosexual agenda bill of goods on this issue!

Considering the left -specifically, radical feminists completely reject anything 'domestic' it is odd that they use a 'domestic' argument when really it is all about one thing only -- homosexual sex

-maybe saving some money by sharing costs comes into play also? ROTFLMAO

- I wonder what the 'requirements' are to establish proof of domestication? It will be interesting to research this question -any takers?

[potlatch]

Not that anyone will be uploading them and emailing them

Wink, wink!

Let's hope they do pass them around.

[napscoordinator]

Even this does not seem important to me after today's events on immigration. Isn't that horrible. I normally would be appauled over this, but you know it just does not matter to me...maybe tomorrow.