Judge grants Preliminary Injunction to Partner Benefits

This weekend, Judge John Sedwick issued a preliminary injunction to stop Arizona from denying gay and lesbian partners domestic partnership benefits.

AZ Central reports:

The legislation eliminated coverage for non-spouse domestic partners, whether they were heterosexual or gay. Heterosexual couples had the option of receiving benefits simply by getting married. Gay and lesbian couple can't do so in Arizona.

The state argued, among other things, that the law saves Arizona money, to which the judge (in one section of a 33-page decision) says:

"Contrary to the State's suggestion, it is not equitable to lay the burden of the State budgetary shortfall on homosexual employees, any more than on any other distinct class, such as employees with green eyes or red hair."

No word yet on whether the state will appeal. As it stands, gay couples who meet the rest of the eligibility criteria in the state's administrative code will receive the same benefits as married state employees

Gov. Pawlenty vetoes the 'Burial Rights' bill for Gay couples

Real smart move, Tim. Real smart.

This son of a jackal just vetoed gay couples' rights to bury their partners.

Citing his support for “traditional marriage,” Gov. Tim Pawlenty vetoed a bill on Saturday that would allow a surviving same-sex partner to sue to recover damages in the case of wrongful death and to execute a deceased partner’s funeral wishes. Sen. Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis, called the veto “partisan extremism,” and Project 515 said Pawlenty got his “facts wrong.”

Pawlenty said the bill “addresses a nonexistent problem” saying that same-sex couple must simply draw up the appropriate paperwork. He also said that a “surviving domestic partner” should not be “afforded the same legal recognition” as a spouse.

“Marriage — as defined as between a man and a woman — should remain elevated in our society at a special level, as it traditionally has been,” said Pawlenty in his veto message. “I oppose efforts to treat domestic relationships as the equivalent of traditional marriage.”

Nonexistent problem? We are a nonexistent problem, Tim? That's so nice to hear, you bastard.

source

Gov. Brewer drops domestic-partner benefits in Arizona

This state is consistently becoming the place of major foolishness.

As soon as the former Gov. Janet Napolitano leaves, the new governor and twit, Jan Brewer signs a new bill that erases state employee benefits from domestic partners.

This was created a year ago and now this heifer, just erases it as if it was an extra comma. However, Jan needs to remember this affects Arizona's state universities. Nobody who's LGBT would want to work there, let alone be in that state.

About 800 state employees are affected, according to the state's administration department.

UA President Robert Shelton planned to issue a memo to college employees today alerting them to the change in benefits.

"We need to come up with a way this university can aid these individuals in buying separate coverage," Shelton said at a staff meeting Tuesday. "Because they're employees here, they qualify for benefits here, they should just like all of us do — and in this case they've been eliminated through a bill that I'm tempted to characterize but will restrain myself from certain adjectives."

Liz Sawyer, a UA staff member, said the exclusion is "deplorable and it's tragic."

Sawyer is a spokeswoman for OUTReach, a staff group that lobbies for domestic-partner benefits at UA.

Last year 170 UA employees signed up for domestic-partner benefits, she said. Forty were same-sex couples and the remainder were unmarried, opposite-sex couples, she said.

If they think this saves money, then they are fools. This forces the LGBT community to go elsewhere, like Cali-Cal.