GOP Lawmaker Sues University To Block Gay Partner Benefits
Once again, why these amendments banning same-sex marriage are not just symbolic but hurt the lives of real people.
GOP Lawmaker Sues University To Block Gay Partner Benefits
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: November 23, 2005 1:00 pm ET
(Columbus, Ohio) An Ohio legislator is asking a court to declare Miami University is violating the state Constitution by providing benefits to the same-sex partners of faculty and staff.
Rep. Tom Brinkman (R-Cincinnati) filed suit Tuesday in the Court of Common Pleas in Columbus, claiming that the constitutional amendment banning gay marriage nullifies such benefits from publicly funded institutions.
Miami University gets about ten percent of its income from the state of Ohio. The rest comes from tuition and endowments.
Brinkman has two children who are students at the university.
The suit says that he "desires that his tax dollars and tuition payments be utilized lawfully, and not applied by the University to finance the constitutional violation challenged herein."
The program has been offered since June 2004. People who sign up for it must be in a long-term monogamous relationship, be of the same sex and share a residence as well as financial obligations.
Brinkman said that he has no sympathy for the partners of gay and lesbian employees of the university.
"[They should] go get a job that gives them benefits. They don’t have a ball and chain around them,” Brinkman said.
Private companies can do whatever they want with their money, he said.
If Brinkman wins his case it could also affect the University of Ohio, Ohio State and Cleveland State universities which offer similar benefits.
The university said it will vigorously defend its position.
“A large measure of the top universities in the country do offer these types of benefits and these are the universities we compete with to get good faculty,” said Richard Little, a spokesperson for Miami.
©365Gay.com 2005
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon05/11/112305ohio.htm
An Ohio legislator is asking a court to declare Miami University is violating the state Constitution by providing benefits to the same-sex partners of faculty and staff.
GOP Lawmaker Sues University To Block Gay Partner Benefits
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: November 23, 2005 1:00 pm ET
(Columbus, Ohio) An Ohio legislator is asking a court to declare Miami University is violating the state Constitution by providing benefits to the same-sex partners of faculty and staff.
Rep. Tom Brinkman (R-Cincinnati) filed suit Tuesday in the Court of Common Pleas in Columbus, claiming that the constitutional amendment banning gay marriage nullifies such benefits from publicly funded institutions.
Miami University gets about ten percent of its income from the state of Ohio. The rest comes from tuition and endowments.
Brinkman has two children who are students at the university.
The suit says that he "desires that his tax dollars and tuition payments be utilized lawfully, and not applied by the University to finance the constitutional violation challenged herein."
The program has been offered since June 2004. People who sign up for it must be in a long-term monogamous relationship, be of the same sex and share a residence as well as financial obligations.
Brinkman said that he has no sympathy for the partners of gay and lesbian employees of the university.
"[They should] go get a job that gives them benefits. They don’t have a ball and chain around them,” Brinkman said.
Private companies can do whatever they want with their money, he said.
If Brinkman wins his case it could also affect the University of Ohio, Ohio State and Cleveland State universities which offer similar benefits.
The university said it will vigorously defend its position.
“A large measure of the top universities in the country do offer these types of benefits and these are the universities we compete with to get good faculty,” said Richard Little, a spokesperson for Miami.
©365Gay.com 2005
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon05/11/112305ohio.htm
posted by JimG at 9:37 AM
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