Monday, December 16, 2002

A statement released today by the ACLU reports that the American Civil Liberties Union will appear before the Alaska Supreme Court today to urge the court to grant lesbian and gay employees of the state and of Anchorage the option of obtaining health, pension and life insurance benefits for their partners.

The lawsuit highlights the A Catch-22" of state law which denies lesbians and gay men the option to marry but guarantees special employment benefits only to married employees.

"Today we will ask the Alaska Supreme Court to recognize that discrimination against lesbian and gay government employees violates the guarantee of equal treatment in the state constitution." said Ken Choe, an ACLU Lesbian and Gay Rights Project staff attorney handling the case.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit in state court in 1999, shortly after Alaskan voters passed a state Constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriage. While the lawsuit does not seek to invalidate that initiative, the ACLU argues that in light of the state prohibition, using marriage as the litmus test for benefits violates the Constitution's equal protection guarantees.

"When heterosexual employees choose to marry, the government provides health insurance and other benefits to their spouses. Lesbian and gay employees can't marry, but they nonetheless deserve the same benefits for their partners," said Choe. "The lesbian and gay couples who brought this lawsuit are asking for equal compensation for equal work. They aren't asking for the right to marry or for special benefits."

As an alternative to making marriage the sole determinant for benefits, the ACLU will argue that government employers could make domestic partner registration or an affidavit of domestic partnership an alternative criterion for benefits.