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 By VASILI SAFOS
   LOS ANGELES (UPI) -- Los Angeles City Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, the
council's first openly homosexual member, introduced legislation Tuesday to
extend health benefits to domestic partners of city employees.
   Goldberg said the plan, which would cost an estimated $1 million annually,
would extend health benefits to same-sex and opposite-sex partners of city
workers.
   The councilwoman said it was time for Los Angeles to join the ranks of other
California cities including San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland, West Hollywood
and Laguna Beach, as well as Atlanta, Minneapolis and New York that already
offer such health benefits.
   Goldberg said a 1987 survey showed 4.2 percent of the Los Angeles city
workforce lived with domestic partners.
   "Knock, knock, you're in this century now...and the reality is that families
come in a variety of types," Goldberg said. "...There are various lifestyles
and various sexual orientation matters which are producing families that are
not uniform."
   Goldberg's motion must be considered by two City Council committees and
union leaders before it returns to the full council for a vote.
   Goldberg said she hoped the plan would become effective early next year.
   "If we don't do it this way, somebody will bring a lawsuit and we'll do it
the hard way," Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky said. "So this is just prudent on our
part."
   Councilman Richard Alarcon also backed the plan, saying he did not think it
is "city government's responsibility to regulate how people should live their
lives."
   The city already recognizes domestic partnerships for sick or bereavement
leave.
   Goldberg said the $1 million cost for providing health benefits to domestic
partners is "a small amount of money" compared to the $21.6 million the city
pays to cover spouses of city workers.