Home »
News &
Events » News Archive » 2000 Press Releases
ACLU Files "Friend-of-the-Court" Brief in Support of City of Gainesville's
Policy Offering Health Benefits to Domestic Partners
September 7, 2000
GAINESVILLE ? The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, along with the national organization's Lesbian and Gay Rights Project, today filed a "friend-of-the-court" brief urging an Alachua County Circuit Court judge to uphold the legality of a policy extending health benefits to the same and opposite sex unmarried partners of city employees.
The Human Rights Council of North Central Florida also has joined with the ACLU in its amicus brief, which applauds the City of Gainesville's efforts to offer employee benefits on a non-discriminatory basis, arguing that the Domestic Partnership Act ? passed by the Gainesville City Commission ? is similar to dozens of ordinances, many of which have been upheld in courts of law throughout the country.
"This case may have a profound impact on the efforts to achieve full equality," said ACLU of Florida cooperating attorney Gary S. Edinger. "If the City of Gainesville's domestic partner benefit program is struck down, every similar program by a government employer in Florida, whether a hospital, university, county or municipality, is at risk."
The City of Gainesville revised its health benefits policy in August 1999, extending benefits to same and opposite sex domestic partners of city employees. The benefits, which became available in April, include COBRA-like extensions of coverage, sick leave benefits, and bereavement leave pay for domestic partners of city employees. In order to receive the benefits, employees must sign an affidavit certifying, among other things, that they've lived with their partner for at least 12 months.
In June, the Orlando-based Liberty Counsel, filed suit against the city on behalf of Gainesville resident Jack Martin, who claims he has "religious and moral objections" to the policy. The group formed in 1989 describes itself as a "non-profit religious civil liberties education and legal defense organization dedicated to preserve (sic) religious freedom." In the initial complaint challenging the policy's legality, Martin argued the policy creates a marriage-like relationship expressly forbidden under the state's two-year-old Defense of Marriage Act. But, as stated in the ACLU's brief, the city's policy does not attempt to create a new marital status, rather it recognizes the economic interdependence of domestic partners. In addition, the Florida statute does not address the issue of employees benefits, nor does it address the extension of financial rights to persons of the same or opposite sex living with others.
"By providing domestic partnership benefits, the City of Gainesville, like other cities across the country, has decided to offer the basic measure of equality to all of its employees," said Leslie Cooper of the ACLU Lesbian & Gay Rights Project. "This case is clear cut; it's about defending equal recognition for all couples regardless off marital status and sexual orientation."
