Bloomberg Ordered To Honor Gay Partner Law
by Doug Windsor 365Gay.com from the Web, November 9, 2004
New York City -- A state Supreme Court judge has ordered New York mayor Michael Bloomberg to put the city's Equal Benefits Law into effect immediately.
The legislation was passed by city council in May. The following month Bloomberg vetoed it saying the law would hurt the city. Two weeks later council overrode the veto by a 41 - 4 vote.
The law would require contractors that do more than $100,000 of business each year with NYC to offer benefits to the partners of gay and lesbian workers equal to those the companies give heterosexually married couples.
The legislation would make health coverage available to tens of thousands of additional people in the New York City region and because many companies which do business with New York are national corporations it could also provide same-sex benefits to hundreds of thousands of people across the country.
When city council overrode the mayor's veto, Bloomberg went to court saying he would not implement the law until the legal process had been exhausted.
Monday, New York Supreme Court Justice Faviola Soto ordered Bloomberg to implement the law immediately.
A spokesperson for the mayor said the law would be put into action while Soto's ruling is appealed.
When he ran for mayor Bloomberg backed the measure but once in office changed his mind, saying that city money should not be used "to advance social issues."
He also cited a decrease in competition for contracts and a resulting increase in the cost of services.
Gay civil rights advocate Matt Foreman resigned from the NY Human Rights Commission last month to protest Bloomberg's legal action against the benefits law.
Foreman was appointed to the Commission by Bloomberg.
Foreman, who is also executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in a letter to Bloomberg and Commission chair Patricia Gatling said that he felt as a matter of conscience obligated to resign.
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