USU drops plan to give gay partners benefits

A preliminary proposal to extend Utah State University employee benefits to same-sex couples could stall because of concerns over its compatibility with the state's constitution.

"The status of the law is extremely unsettled," said USU general counsel Craig Simper, referring to Amendment 3, which bans same-sex marriage and any other "domestic union" that is substantially equivalent to marriage.

Simper discussed the draft domestic-partner benefits proposal, written by four USU faculty members, Monday at a health-care forum for university employees. The proposal would give same-sex couples the same health-care benefits as married couples.

"The general viewpoint is the plain language of Amendment 3 precludes giving same-sex couples the same benefits of opposite-sex couples," he said. "We're not looking to be a test case."

However, Bill Duncan, director of the Marriage Law Foundation, said domestic-partner benefits are allowed under Amendment 3 since they're not creating a marriage or marriagelike relationship.

"Health insurance benefits go to children who are not married to the employee," he said.

The University of Utah offers some benefits to unmarried partners of employees, including the opportunity to purchase the same health insurance as employees, but the cost isn't covered by the university, said U. spokeswoman Coralie Alder.

"It's no expense to the university, and full expense to the employee," she said.

Simper said the U. policy is different legally from the proposed USU plan because same-sex couples don't get the same coverage as married couples. He added that state legislators have yet to set guidelines for what, if any, domestic-partner benefits are allowed.

Faculty Senate President-elect Derek Mason said the plan has been referred for further study to the Budget and Faculty Welfare Committee.

"I'm sure it will continue to be debated and discussed," he said. "In terms of coming to fruition, given Amendment 3, it's not likely."

Mason said most of Monday's forum focused on rising medical costs.

"This domestic-partner package is not a divisive, hot-button issue among university employees," he said. "There were no questions asked."

The Jan. 27 draft proposal asked for the same-sex couple benefits. Another proposal written Feb. 9 would extend the benefits to unmarried opposite-sex partners.

The proposal for same-sex partner benefits says there are about 68 gay and lesbian faculty and staff at the university.

---

E-mail: dbulkeley@desnews.com