Amendment would give gay couples benefits

Several proposed amendments to the Philadelphia Code would require employers including the University to provide unmarried domestic partners with the same benefits as married couples. The proposed amendments would reinforce the University's policy of allowing gay couples housing priviliges, and would also require the University to provide spousal benefits to all employees who could prove they are domestic partners. The changes would modify the definition of marital status to read, "The presence or absence of any marital relationship, including the status of being single, married, separated, divorced, widowed or cohabition." Bob Schoenberg, assistant director of Student Life Programs, praised the plan. "Such a change to city law would only strengthen the argument to the University administration that it should give all the same benefits available to married employees to same-sex domestic partners," he said. Members of the University's gay community said they also support the proposed change. "I feel it is about time that decisions like this are made to acknowledge gay, lesbian and bisexual relationships," said Social Work graduate student Daren Wade, who is a member of Queers Invading Penn. "I think that domestic partners should be extended the same benefits that heterosexually married couples have been receiving for a long time." "I think it would be one more reason for the University to provide equal benefits to all employees regardless of marital status," Communications Professor Larry Gross said. Gross added that Stanford University, the University of Chicago, and Swarthmore College have begun providing benefits for domestic partners of gay and lesbian employees. He added that the cost has been minimal at other universities which have adopted this policy, and that he approves of the proposed changes to the Philadelphia code. San Franscisco, Seattle and Washington D.C. all adopted policies acknowledging cohabitation, and New York is in the process of doing so, according to Gross. "The purpose of the ordinance is that there are many people living with long-standing mates, but who are not married and cannot receive health and employment benefits," said Florence Cohen, legislative aid to Councilman David Cohen, who is sponsoring the proposal. "The basic idea is that long-term mates should receive the same benefits as married couples," she said.

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