Copied from Electronic Engineering Times, Nov. 8, 1993
       (without permission, of course)


    'Domestic-partner benefits' emerge

By Robert Bellenger

    Nearly 100 representatives from companies around the country met in
Berkeley, Calif., last month to discuss a new and controversial addition
to their benefits package - domestic-partner benefits (DPBs).
    Several prominent electronics and technology companies now allow
unmarried employees who live with someone to add lifetime partners to
the company health plans. Some companies will cover only gay workers
under the arrangement, while others also include hetrosexual partners.
    However, domestic-partner benefits are only part of a drive by gay
and lesbian employees to organize policies in the workplace.
    "No area has more potency than the advancement of gay rights in the
workplace," says Elizabeth Birch, senior litagation counsel at Apple
Computer and co-chair of The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. The
Task Force was one of the sponsors of an Oct. 16 meeting at Stanford
University on workplace issues and DPBs.
    Workplace issues, said Birch, have "immediate impact" on gay and
lesbian workers. Besides DPBs, other issues concern gay and lesbian
employees, says Task Force co-chair Christopher Collins.  They include:
elimination of discrimination, "breaking through the lavender ceiling,"
building coalitions with other employee groups, such as labor, and
"dealing with closeted people in power."
    But the implementation of DPBs is the issue that drew 94 human-
resource managers and executives to a pre-conference seminar last month.
To Collin's knowledge, it's the first time that mainline corporations
and a gay rights organization have participated in a joint seminar.

A distinct minority

    Only six of the Fortune 1000 companies have instituted domestic-
partner plans, so far. All told, it's estimated that only 50 companies
of all types, in the entire United States permit unmarried partners
to join company plans, according to Ken McDonnell of the Emploment
Benefit Research Institute (ERBI; Washington, D.C.), which studies
benefits trends in the United States.
    But the high-technology field, along with entertainment and some
city goverments, has been a pioneer in DPBs.
    Among electronics companies that have opened up their health-
care plans are Lotus Development, Borland, and Microsoft.
    It's not that significant a trend among employers," observes
McDonnell. But technology compies and cities in the west and northeast
sections of the country have led the way "because they consider them-
selves liberal and progressive."
    The Task Force's Collins says other Fortune 1000 firms are considering
widening their coverage to same-sex and heterosexual non-married
couples. Most only offer same-sex partners the DPBs, because gay couples
have no option to leegally marry, while hetrosexual pairs do. However,
Microsoft does offer DPBs to both.
    Some corporations have made their plans public while others have
kept it quiet, because of fears of backlash from conservative groups.
The city of Lansing, Mich., had to repeal its domestic-partner-benefits
plan when religious and conservative organizations objected.
    Insuarance carriers, nervous about public reaction, have kept a
low profile, while at the same time, loosening some of their initial
requirements, said ERBI's McDonnell. The city of West Hollywood, for
instance, had to turn to self-insurance because no carrier would
cover DPBs.
    "We've never heard of any organized opposition," to gay rights
in the workplace said Collins, "but we fully expect it."
    Indeed, the Family Research Council, a conservative-oriented
Washington analysis outfit, has hit DPBs as "an attack on the social
protections for marriage and family."
    Besides the morality issue, there were concerns about cost, most
of which have proven unfounded, McDonnell points out. At first, insurance
companies were concerned that there would be an influx of people with
AIDS added to plans. Treatment for AIDS is extremely expensive. "That
has not happened," McDonnell said.
    There's been no cost difference" in claims between legally married
couples and domestic partners, he noted. In the city goverment of
Berkeley, Calif., the insurance carrier there added a surcharge to
cover domestic partners. After one year, the charge was dropped "because
the risk wasn't there. The claims were just the same," McDonnell said.
    Not that many employers have come forward to ask for the benefits,
either. "Homosexual employees are not ready to come out in the work
place. So they don't take advantage of it," McDonnell said.
    That's something that the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force would
like to change.
    "There's a whole new breed of activits," said Birch. "An army of
people are coming out of the high-tech industry."

Education process

    It's a long process of education, she added, of convincing executives
and managers that "it's good business" to employ and nurture gay and
lesbian employees. In the meantime, the taskforce is eyeing ways of helping
employees organize from the bottom up. A DPB program, said advocates,
tells the work force that the company values the contributions of unmarried
and gay employees.
    However, ERBI's McDonnell offers a word of warning to employees at
companies with DPB. Health benefits are taxable to gay and unmarried
heterosexual couples because the IRS allows deductions only on health
benefits for legally married couples.