Mar 19, 2004  |  By: RYAN LEE  | COMMENTS     

ATLANTA — The tranquil silence, manicured landscape and blue-blooded charm that characterize America’s private country clubs is being flustered by a sometimes hostile legal debate over whether committed same-sex couples should be eligible for the same privileges clubs routinely grant to married heterosexuals.

Gay couples in Atlanta and San Diego are trying to use state and municipal non-discrimination laws to force two golf clubs to put registered domestic partnerships on par with married couples when it comes to spousal benefits that sometimes include waiving guest fees and the ability to inherit memberships.

But representatives from both clubs reject claims that their policies discriminate against gay members and their domestic partners, since the policies mirror state laws that differentiate between marriage and other relationships.

A California appellate court agreed with one of the clubs, the Bernardo Heights Country Club in San Diego, last week when it ruled, “It is state law, and its stated public policy supporting marriage as being only between a man and a woman, that results in the alleged disparate treatment.”

The 4th District California Court of Appeals upheld an earlier ruling that dismissed Birgit Koebke’s lawsuit claiming Bernardo Heights violated the state’s civil rights law by denying spousal privileges to her partner of 10 years, Kendall French.

But in a split decision, the three-judge panel also said there was sufficient evidence for Koebke to proceed with a lawsuit alleging the club discriminated by making exceptions to its marriage requirement only for unmarried heterosexual couples.

Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund, which represents Koebke, plans to ask the court to reconsider the first half of its ruling.

“When marital status is used as a necessary qualification for benefits, and a group of people who do not have access to marriage, it’s discrimination,” said Jenny Pizer, a senior staff attorney in the Los Angeles office of Lambda Legal.

Mediating differences
In Atlanta, the Druid Hills Golf Club and two gay members are trying to avoid a lengthy court battle by entering into mediation about the club’s spousal benefits policy, which also excludes committed same-sex couples.

The members, Lee Kyser and Randy New, lobbied internally to convince club officials to extend spousal benefits to their city-recognized domestic partners, before filing a discrimination complaint with the city of Atlanta’s Human Relations Commission in July 2003.

In January, the commission ruled that Druid Hills violated the city’s nearly four-year-old ordinance that prohibits discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations based on domestic partnership status, among other categories.

After receiving the commission’s findings, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin postponed a ruling on sanctioning the club, recommending mediation instead. The penalties Franklin could impose range from a written reprimand to revoking the club’s business and liquor licenses.

The city’s law department is searching for an independent mediator, and no timeframe has been established for the mediation, representatives from both parties said this week.

But whether the non-binding mediation can produce an acceptable compromise is questionable, as both sides have drawn clear lines in the sand.

“We believe that our policy of treating both unmarried same-sex and opposite-sex couples in the same manner is fair and consistent, and our policy is one of the most inclusive guest policies of any private club in Georgia,” Druid Hills President T. Kent Smith said in a statement.

“In August 2003, the club made a significant, voluntary accommodation on the issue of privileges for unmarried couples by modifying our designated guest policy,” Smith added.

Under the new policy, Kyser and New could register their partners as “designated guests,” which would exempt them from paying guest fees when attending the club with the member. But the policy doesn’t allow the partners to attend the club alone or host business clients, nor does it allow them to inherit the membership if Kyser or New were to die.

Kyser and New said if Druid Hills does not agree to extend full spousal benefits to their domestic partners, they want Franklin to impose the severest penalty possible.

But Emmett Bondurant, an Atlanta lawyer retained by Druid Hills, said if mediation fails and Franklin hands down excessive sanctions, the club is prepared to file a lawsuit that will expose the ordinance as meaningless.

“The city needs to ask itself: If you agree with the ordinance in purpose — to try to hinder discrimination — the question is, is that goal furthered by litigating this matter and losing?” Bondurant said. “Or is it enough that public officials have put that view in the record?”

Uphill battle
The gay couples involved in the two disputes face uphill legal battles, as laws in California and ...