 |
Colorado
Springs Illegally Cancelled
Gay
Partner Benefits
by
365Gay.com from the Web. November 10, 2005
|
| |
|
Colorado Springs, CO --
Colorado court has been told that the city's cancellation of health benefits to
the partners of gay and lesbian municipal workers was illegal and that the
benefits should be restored.
The argument was made in a brief submitted by the lawyer for two lesbian couple
who say their constitutional rights were violated when Colorado Springs City
Council abruptly terminated the benefits in 2003.
The city began providing health care benefits to the partners of its gay and
lesbian workers in 2000. But, in April 2003 a new council ended the plan.
The case was filed in El Paso County District Court by Barb Henson, a 911
dispatcher, and her partner Kaylynn LaGamma, and Connie Trujillo, a unit clerk
at the city-owned hospital, and Susan Osorio identified only as a city employee.
The City Attorney Stacy Rouse argued that employee benefits are not protected
rights and that the city can add or delete such things from its budget from year
to year.
Responding to the city, the plaintiffs attorney Trish Bangert, said that the
case is not about the city’s right to change the budget but the council’s
attempt to take away rights of privacy, autonomy and association by taking from
same-sex couples something it grants to all other workers.
When the suit was filed in February Bangert said the city council was influenced
by conservative Christian groups. Colorado Springs is home to the anti-gay
organization Focus on the Family.
|
