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Posted on 10/01/2002 5:56:17 AM PDT by Dr. Scarpetta
In 1998, then-Mayor Ed Rendell signed into law amendments to the Philadelphia City Code creating a new marital status called "life partnership."
Registered city workers and their same-sex partners were now eligible to receive health, pension, and realty tax benefits if they were demonstrated to be in a loving, committed, mutually monogamous, financially interdependent relationship for longer than six months.
On Aug. 29, the Commonwealth Court, in a unanimous decision, overturned the ordinance. The judges said the city had acted beyond its authority in changing local laws pertaining to marriage, thereby violating clear public policy, established by the Commonwealth, favoring marriage.
Proponents of life partnerships will tell you that creation of the law was not about marriage. They say it was about fairness and sound business practice, principles needed to attract and retain qualified, diverse talent to the city.
But I think such claims are simply untrue. If the life partnership ordinance really aimed at fairness or good business, then the partnerships covered would not have been restricted to same-sex partners.
Because the ordinance purposely sought to exclude all other unmarried partners of city workers, the city did what the Commonwealth Court says it tried to do - redefine marriage - by creating the equivalent of a statute permitting and providing for homosexual civil union.
Much is at stake as Mayor Street seeks an appeal and stay of judgment from the state Supreme Court. The mayor risks his public image. Much taxpayer money stands to be misspent. And the health benefits of approximately 120 registered lesbian or gay partners of city workers are thrown into uncertainty.
But even more may be at risk for Philadelphia. If this ordinance stands, it will endorse unfair and unsound business practices that will hurt the city. Worse, this ordinance will wreak havoc by dismantling the definition and value of marriage in our society.
In the 2000 U.S. Census Profile of General Demographic Characteristics for Philadelphia County, approximately 6 percent of respondents reported living with nonrelatives; 2.3 percent of the nonrelatives were identified as unmarried partners.
Let's say the city's 1998 workforce, estimated to be 23,000 people on payroll, followed the same proportions. Then about 1,380 city workers lived with a nonrelative, about 529 with an unmarried partner.
If these rough estimates are anywhere near accurate, the question becomes even clearer: Why should lesbians or gays who live together be entitled to more benefits than other nonmarried heterosexuals who live together?
If we subtract from our estimates above the 120 couples who registered with the city, we still have about 400 people - between 77 and 91 percent of all nonrelative partners of city workers - excluded from health benefits. How can a law allegedly about fairness ignore so many?
Why were the needs of this population of city workers and their partners overlooked? Because the implicit purpose of the life partnership ordinance was to provide recognition to lesbian and gay couples.
Recognition - via registration with the Philadelphia Commission on Human Rights - was to encourage public acceptance of homosexual unions as legitimate civil unions while circumventing state law, which has the sole authority to define civil unions.
Under the Life Partnership ordinance, the city would be actually discriminating against a significant portion of its own workforce.
Such discrimination - which Mayor Street is fighting to maintain - is allowed because gay and lesbian civil rights lobbyists don't care about heterosexual couples; they care about homosexual couples.
City politicians don't care about heterosexual nonmarried people; they care about lobbyists, PACs, and photo opportunities in the name of diversity featuring rainbows and fringe.
Unmarried heterosexual partners of city workers aren't standing at the mayor's door threatening his tenure with the departure of a well-defined voting bloc. Neither are they mounting a media campaign with precision protest.
Instead, they're invisible because they are ignored. And they will continue to go unnoticed and be ignored because it would cost the city, and its taxpayers, too much money to care for them. Plus, truth be told, if unmarried heterosexuals want increased benefits because they live together - then they should marry.
It really is about marriage after all.
Betty Jean Wolfe (bjwolfe@urbanfamily.org) is president of the Urban Family Council.
Because it isn’t about fairness. It’s about being Politically Correct. Winning the support of special interest groups at the expense of dividing society is the hallmark of the Democrap party. That, and ignoring the law when it’s inconvenient or runs counter to their goals.
Owl_Eagle
”Guns Before Butter.”
Schedule of debates between Fisher & Rendell: Come out to support Fisher.
10/14: Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre, 7 pm
10/20: State Theater, Easton, 8 pm
10/23: Forum, Harrisburg, 6 pm
10/24: WITF TV, Harrisburg, 8 pm
10/27: WPXI TV, Pittsburgh, 10:30 am
10/29: WPVI TV, Philadelphia, 7 pm
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