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Email: "Judge Orders Arizona to Help Pay Homosexual Partners’ Insurance"

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BY LifeSiteNews.com By James TillmanPHOENIX, Arizona, July 29, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A federal judge has blocked the enforcement of an Arizona law preventing health insurance benefits for the dependents of state employees from being offered to homosexual partners in domestic partnerships.He also denied a motion by state Attorney Charles Grube to dismiss the case Collins v. Brewer and ordered that the case proceed.Arizona currently provides subsidized health care to the dependents of eligible state employees, including spouses or domestic partners.  However, domestic partners may either be of the same or of the opposite sex.HB 2013, which Gov. Jan Brewer signed in September 2009, eliminated both same- and opposite-sex domestic partners as eligible dependents.  Her action overthrew a rule change made by then-Governor Janet Napolitano, which had allowed domestic partners to receive benefits.The new definition was to take effect on January 1, 2011.U.S. District Judge John Sedwick's July 23 injunction, however, prevents the state from implementing the law so that it cuts benefits to homosexual "domestic partners."His order is a response to requests by attorneys of Lambda Legal in Collins v. Brewer, in which ten homosexual couples are alleging that their right to equal protection under the law, as guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution, has been infringed by HB 2013.His 33-page order nevertheless permits the state to continue to bar heterosexual domestic couples from state benefits.He justifies this inequality by saying that heterosexuals may become eligible for family insurance under the state plan by marrying, while practicing homosexuals may not because state law does not permit them to marry.Homosexual marriage in Arizona was outlawed by a constitutional amendment in 2008.The judge states that "plaintiffs have demonstrated that the absolute denial of benefits to employees with same-sex domestic partners is not rationally and substantially related to the State’s purported interests in cost savings, administrative efficiency, and favoring marriage and families with children."He also said that there was an "inherent inequality" in allowing married employees to participate in the state's health plan fully, while requiring other employees to rely on other sources such as private insurance or Medicaid.He said such treatment "relegates plaintiffs to a second-class status by imposing inferior workplace treatment on them."Brewer spokesman Paul Senseman said that the governor's office would soon review the decision and decide what actions to take. http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/judge-orders-arizona-to-help-pay-homosexual-partners-insurance/

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