State employment benefits extended to same-sex spouses
Lisa Moore, a professor of English and women’s and gender studies at the University of Texas at Austin, has been waiting 24 years for the university to extend benefits to the same-sex spouses of its gay and lesbian employees.
After leaving Cornell University, which offered benefits to same-sex partners, she took her post at UT in 1991 expecting that benefits for same-sex couples were “around the corner.” While waiting for the school to turn that corner, she became a vocal critic of the university’s policy.
Moore legally married her longtime partner in 2011 in Canada.
“Our joke back in the ’90s was ‘Oh, gay marriage will be legal in Texas before UT will give us same-sex partner benefits.’ And that’s actually what came to pass,” she said.
As of Wednesday, public employers including Texas agencies, universities and schools will allow current and retired gay and lesbian employees to enroll their same-sex spouses in the same benefit programs and services available to opposite-sex couples.
The Teacher Retirement System of Texas, the University of Texas System, the Texas A&M University System and the Employees Retirement System — which oversees benefits for state employees and all other public universities and community colleges — changed their policies after the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday ruled that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry and that states must recognize same-sex marriages from other states.
Before the court’s ruling, Texas law prohibited same-sex spouses from being included as an “eligible dependent” on health insurance plans subsidized by the state. (Texas pays 50 percent of the health insurance premiums for state employees.)
Most revised their policies to accommodate same-sex spouses and announced they would open enrollment on Wednesday.
Professors at Texas’ public universities celebrated the extension of benefits, saying the policy change will offer relief for many gay and lesbian employees and reduce the rate at which they leave Texas institutions in search of schools that accommodate same-sex couples.
Patrick Burkart, a communications professor at Texas A&M University, said extending benefits for same-sex couples will put the university on the “same competitive footing” as other research universities across the country because it will help retain and recruit top faculty and staffers.
“What we’re going to find out is how expensive it’s been to keep a discriminatory policy on the books as we have,” said Burkart, the secretary and treasurer of the A&M chapter of the American Association of University Professors, which has pushed for the benefits for years.
Burkart, who has served on several faculty search committees, indicated that the previous policy denying benefits to same-sex spouses or partners kept potential candidates from applying for posts at the school.
Hundreds of colleges across the country offer benefits to same-sex spouses or same-sex domestic partners.
“I think our university has suffered for it, and now is a great time to catch up and gather our strengths,” Burkart said.
Texas withdraws appeal
In light of the Supreme Court’s ruling on Friday that same-sex marriage is protected by the U.S. Constitution, the Texas attorney general’s office has conceded a separate legal challenge to the state’s ban on same-sex marriage. That challenge had been left pending in federal appeals court.
The Supreme Court’s ruling legalized same-sex marriage nationwide when it decided four cases out of a Cincinnati-based court. But a separate legal challenge to Texas’ ban, brought by two same-sex couples, had yet to be decided by the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The 5th Circuit should affirm a lower court ruling that overturned Texas’ longstanding ban on same-sex marriage, Scott Keller, the state’s solicitor general, wrote in a letter to the appellate court. That letter was in response to the appellate court’s request that the state and the plaintiffs advise the court on the next steps in the Texas case. — The Texas Tribune
This story was originally published July 1, 2015 at 6:18 PM with the headline "State employment benefits extended to same-sex spouses."