ACLU joins battle over partner benefits

"They are raising families. Dianna wants to be able to protect her family and provide for her family as married heterosexual couples do," Plane said.

Another legal action is also pending in 3rd District Court regarding the mayor's executive order. A civil lawsuit filed by three taxpayers and the Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative legal group, opposes the order.

The lawsuit claims Anderson's order violates Utah's Defense of Marriage Act and the Utah Constitution by providing gay couples and unmarried heterosexual couples with equivalent legal status to traditional marriage. The constitution forbids marriage between people of the same gender and bars any other domestic union from receiving the same legal effect as a traditional marriage.

The Alliance Defense Fund has asked the court to combine the two legal actions and Salt Lake City filed a memorandum saying it would not object to that as long as the issue can be settled quickly.

The city's memo notes that the plaintiffs in that case didn't serve legal documents on the city until a month after filing their lawsuit and "have done little to advance the matter since that time."

Third District Judge Stephen Roth has set Nov. 17 for the next court hearing on the PEHP action.

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E-mail: estewart@desnews.com; lindat@desnews.com