New Orleans Gay Rights Law Challenged In Court
by 365Gay.com from the Web, January 28, 2005
New Orleans, Louisiana -- The Louisiana Appeals Court will hear a suit challenging City of New Orleans ordinances that created a domestic partner registry and extended benefits to same-sex couples.
In 1997, the City of New Orleans extended health insurance benefits to same-sex partners of city employees.
In 1999 the City Council, by a majority vote, created a domestic partner registry that allows couples to make a public commitment to care for and support each other.
The domestic partner benefits policy and the city's domestic partner registry almost immediately came under fire from conservatives.
The suit was filed on their behalf by the Alliance Defense Fund, a Scottsdale, Arizona-firm that is involved in a number of similar cases nationwide.
The ADF claimed that the city's benefits program violates the rights of people opposed to homosexuality.
The case was dismissed by a lower court and the group went to the Louisiana Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.
At the request of the New Orleans city attorney, Lambda Legal joined the lawsuit representing city employee Peter Sabi and his partner, Philip Centanni.
Sabi has worked in the city's Vieux Carre Commission as a senior building inspector for nine years.
Centanni is a self-employed writer.
Sabi and Centanni have been together for almost nine years. As a self-employed writer, Centanni was paying $500 a month for health insurance before the city extended benefits to its employees' same-sex partners.
Now the couple pays $50 a month for Centanni's coverage.
"Our clients deserve the same health coverage their co-workers receive for their families, and the City of New Orleans did the right thing by offering it," said Lambda lawyer Brian Chase, who is handling the case.
"This benefit directly affects the health and well-being of city employees and their families."
Public employers in over 10 states, and nearly 140 counties and cities nationwide have extended health insurance benefits to the domestic partners of gay and lesbian employees.
More than 60 cities and counties have domestic partner registries, some of which have benefits attached.
In general, registries have important symbolic value for couples who sign up, and both public and private employers often find them helpful when extending benefits to employees nonmarital partners.
Lambda Legal has handled many similar lawsuits on behalf of cities whose domestic partnership benefits and registries are attacked by antigay groups including the case of S.D. Myers v. City and County of San Francisco.
Lambda Legal filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the City of San Francisco.
A federal appeals court ruled in favor of the city and its domestic partnership plan.
Last year Louisiana voters approved a constitutional amendment blocking same-sex marriage.
The vote was appealed on procedural grounds and earlier this month the state Supreme Court ruled that the vote was valid.
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