Portland would be the first city in Oregon and would join roughly 13 other states, counties and cities in the nation to require equal benefits for contractors' employees...

Eleven years ago, the city of Portland extended health benefits to gay and unmarried domestic partners. Then an Oregon appeals court decision seven years ago required state and local governments to offer spousal benefits to same-sex domestic partners of employees. Now we've got the "EBO" (Equal Benefits Ordinance).

Portland City Commissioner Sam Adams wants city contractors to extend benefits to their employees' domestic partners, too. The City Council is expected to approve the plan next month.

"It pales in comparison to the rights gays or lesbians could achieve with gay marriage and civil unions," said Sam Adams. "But given our limited powers, it's what we can do."

Commissioner Sam's idea would not require companies that offer no benefits to extend them to domestic partners or spouses. But it would require contractors who offer benefits to their employees' spouses to offer the same benefits to their domestic partners.

The plan has already drawn criticism from conservative groups. Go figure. As I've said before - it's not about gay marriage for these groups - it's plain anti-gay. In this case it's very confusing as it would offer benefits to straight, unmarried couples as well. A bit confusing as to why these conservative groups need to be involved.

Sam's proposal should pass without an issue. Mayor Tom Potter and commissioners Randy Leonard, Dan Saltzman and Erik Sten support the plan.

[...]

For Adams' proposal, there's a small problem...

Tigard-based Health Net, which insures 154,000 people in Oregon and Southwest Washington, doesn't offer domestic partner coverage for companies with two to 25 employees. I know this from first hand experience as well - when I started working at my company we had 5 people - we're now at 22 people and still cannot get it from HealthNet, our current health insurance provider.

The company offers domestic partner coverage for larger employers and is exploring it for smaller ones, a HealthNet spokesperson said.

Adams' senior policy director, Jesse Beason, said the proposal might possibly grant exemptions for smaller employers who can't get the coverage from their insurance company.

Roey Thorpe of Basic Rights Oregon stated that Adams' proposal "sets the community standard for nondiscrimination that's really powerful."

We'll see where it goes - though it is looking quite good at this point. Again, for more on this please visit Sam's blog.

Posted by Bryan Harding

This entry was posted on Friday, December 09, 2005 at 2:21 AM. Want to discuss? Leave a comment below.