Oct 10, 2003   | COMMENTS     

The U.S. Senate will consider two landmark gay rights bills introduced last week, one to prohibit workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and the other to end the taxability of domestic partner health insurance benefits for spouses and legal dependents, the Gay Financial Network reported. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, was first introduced in June of 1996. The other bill, the Domestic Partner Health Benefits Equity Act, would end the taxability of domestic partner health insurance benefits and treat them the same as health insurance benefits for spouses and legal dependents, according to media reports. “Currently, 194 Fortune 500 companies including General Motors, Chevron, Texaco, Boeing, Hewlett-Packard and Citigroup, as well as 161 state and local governments nationwide, provide health insurance benefits to the domestic partners of their employees,” wrote Senate members Gordon H. Smith and Bob Graham in the original bill.

Non-binding same-sex DP registry opens in Chicago
CHICAGO (AP) | Mona Noriega wanted it to be a festive occasion, so she handed out tiny bottles of bubble soap to workers at the Cook County Clerk’s office. As bubbles floated through the air, Noriega, 48, and her partner of eight years, Evette Cardona, 41, entered their names in Cook County’s new domestic partnership registry. The registration carries no legal rights, but Noriega, who is the Midwest regional director of Lambda Legal, a gay rights advocacy group, said it is at least a symbolic victory for same-sex couples. “The main benefits are the affirmation and the emotional commitment,” she said. Noriega and Cardona, a senior project officer with the Polk Brothers Foundation, were among nearly 50 couples who signed the registry by noon on the first day the opportunity was offered. While applauding the Cook County move, Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich said there were no plans yet to imitate it on a statewide basis.

Former partners take custody battle to Wash. appeals court
SEATTLE (AP) | A woman who raised a child from birth to age 6 while dating the girl’s biological mother has asked the state Court of Appeals to recognize her rights as a parent. If the court agrees, it could create a new class of parent in the state. The three judges who heard the arguments gave no indication when they would rule. Sue Ellen Carvin, who goes by “Mian,” sued her former partner, Page Britain, in King County Superior Court last November, alleging that Britain had unfairly cut off access to Britain’s biological daughter, identified in court papers as L.B. The two had been together for about six years when they decided to raise a child together. Britain was artificially inseminated and gave birth in 1995. For the next several years, Carvin stayed home to raise the girl. But a year and a half ago, Britain and Carvin split. Britain married the sperm donor and subsequently barred Carvin from seeing L.B. In appealing, Carvin is asking the judges to acknowledge her rights as a parent, which would enable her to go back to King County Superior Court and press her claim there by showing that she should be allowed to see the child.

Indiana to defend law banning same-sex unions
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) | A lawsuit seeking to ease Indiana’s ban on same-sex unions could go to the Indiana Court of Appeals for a decision later this month. The attorney general’s office filed a brief last week asking the court to uphold a judge’s ruling that the state law clearly defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman. The Indiana Civil Liberties Union, which is representing three same-sex couples, has 15 days to respond. The case then goes to the Court of Appeals for a decision. Marion County Superior Court Judge S.K. Reid ruled in May that the Indiana law “promotes the state’s interest in encouraging procreation to occur in a context where both biological parents are present to raise the child.” In the appeal, ICLU attorney Ken Falk disputed that contention, arguing that the 1986 law is unconstitutional because it violates the rights of “autonomy, self-determination and personal privacy, which encompass the marriage decision.”

Hemingway grandchildren settle dispute over writer’s estate
MIAMI (AP) | Eight grandchildren of Ernest Hemingway have settled a dispute over the $7.5 million estate of the writer’s transsexual child, Gloria, averting a ruling from a judge on whether the heir, whose birth name was Gregory, died a man or a woman. Lawyers from both sides disclosed the settlement but said details were confidential. The dispute was between the grandchildren and Gloria Hemingway’s widow, Ida, and ...