>From the 5/16/1992 L.A. TIMES (reprinted without permission), page D1:

BIG STEP FOR MCA
Entertainment Firm Extends Health Benefits to Same-Sex Partners

By Thomas S. Mulligan
TIMES Staff Writer

MCA Inc. on Friday became the first entertainment company to
extend health insurance coverage to "committed, same-sex
partners" of its employees, but some criticized the policy as too
limited.

Gay an lesbian rights proponents said the action by influential
MCA, a unit of the Japanese industrial concern Matsushita, could
spread through the entertainment industry.  Indeed, Fox, Inc.
said it was "definitely considering" a similar policy.

Sid Sheinberg, MCA president and chief operating officer, said
the new policy, effective July 1, was "motivated by feelings of
essential fairness."

But because it limits coverage to employees with same-sex
partners, some experts believe that the MCA policy itself is
unfair.

"I'm not sure that this is progress," said Tom Coleman, a lawyer
and executive director of the Family Diversity Project in Los
Angeles.  For an unmarried worker with a partner of the opposite
sex, he said, "based on considerations of family status, you're
going to be paid less per hour, bottom line."

MCA declined to say how many of its 16,000 U.S. employees would
be affected by the policy or how much it would cost.  A
spokeswoman said that because of collective-bargaining issues,
certain unionized workers would not immediately be eligible.

MCA followed in the steps of Lotus Development Corp. of
Cambridge, Mass., and Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx,
both of which last year began providing health coverage for
partners of their gay and lesbian employees.

Other companies, notably Levi Strauss & Co. of San Francisco and
Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc. of Waterbury, Vt., expend health
benefits to partners of all employees, regardless of gender or
marital status.  Numerous municipal employers, Los Angeles and
San Francisco among them, have taken similar action.

What all such policies have in common is that they require
employees to meet certain criteria that demonstrate a long-term
commitment to their partners.

In the case of MCA, employees will sign an "affadavit of
marriage/spousal equivalency" in which they will declare, among
other things, that they live with their partner and plan to do so
indefinitely, that they are not married to someone else and that
they share responsibility for basic living expenses.

The affadavit was based on a model drawn up by a group of
benefits experts organized by Hollywood Supports, an
entertainment industry group created last year to counter
discrimination based on sexual orientation and fears about AIDS.
Sheinberg and former Fox Chairman Barry Diller were among the
founders.

Civil rights lawyer Gloria R. Allred on Friday applauded MCA for
taking "a very important step on behalf of people who do not have
the opportunity to have their long-term relationships recognized
under the law."

However, Allred too had discrimination concerns.  "Other couples
also have serious commitments but have good reasons for not
marrying," she said.

"Some companies -- I'm not saying MCA -- might choose this course
strictly on economic grounds, saying, 'Well, we can't afford to
do this for everybody,'" Allred said.  "But that's no defense
against a discrimination charge."

Sheinberg seemed exasperated that people would find fault with
the MCA initiative.  "We obviously don't think it's
discriminatory or we wouldn't have done it," he said.

"The real fairness issue is that gay and lesbian employees have
experienced all kinds of discrimination and this is a step toward
recognizing that," said Rich Jennings of Hollywood Supports.  He,
like others, noted that opposite-sex partners at least have the
option of getting married, while gays and lesbians do not.

Sheinberg worried that other companies will seize on doubts about
fairness or legality to justify not adopting policies of their
own.  "Believe me," he said, "if there's an excuse, you'll find
people who'll leap to catch it."
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ROGER B.A. KLORESE                                              +1 415 ALL-ARFF
rogerk@unpc.QueerNet.ORG                 {ames,decwrl,pyramid}!mips!unpc!rogerk
"Normal is not something to aspire to, it's something to get away from."
                                                                   -- J. Foster