Benefits

With six months left in his four-year term, Illinois state Treasurer (and candidate for U.S. Senate) Alexi Giannoulias signed an executive order on Sunday extending family-leave benefits to gay and lesbian employees in domestic partnerships. The new policy will allow gay and lesbian employees of his office to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid […]

President Obama on Wednesday extended a wider range of benefits to the same-sex partners of eligible federal workers, including access to medical treatment, relocation assistance, credit unions and fitness centers. The move goes beyond a memo Obama signed last June, which permitted same-sex partners to use the government’s long-term-care insurance and other fringe benefits. The […]

Shipping giant FedEx announced Tuesday it will begin offering health insurance to same-sex domestic partners. The benefit won’t become available until January 1, 2012, and while the company has yet to finalize many of the details, it has announced the expansion of its benefits program nonetheless. The Memphis-based shipper had been coming under pressure from […]

The Archdiocese of Washington has changed its employee health care policy in the latest fallout from the District’s decision to legalize same-sex marriage. As of Tuesday, Catholic Charities will no longer offer benefits to spouses of new employees or to spouses of current employees who are not already enrolled in the plan. Under the District’s […]

The recent death of a Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper is once again putting the rights of same-sex couples under scrutiny. When Highway Patrol Cpl. Dennis Engelhard was killed in a Christmas Day traffic accident near Eureka, the agency described him as single with no […]

The Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act would provide domestic partner benefits for federal employees and their same-sex partners, including federal health insurance, retirement and disability benefits, family, medical and emergency leave, and compensation for work injuries.

A gay rights group has filed suit seeking damages for state employees whose families will lose their health-care coverage following the elimination this year of domestic-partner benefits.

A federal judge today ordered compensation for a Los Angeles couple denied spousal benefits by the federal government because they are gay men, reports the Los Angeles Times. U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Stephen Reinhardt deemed the denial of healthcare and other benefits to the spouse of federal public defender Brad Levenson to […]

PHOENIX — Domestic partners are being eliminated from Arizona state employee benefits just a year after they were added to the benefits plan, reports the Arizona Daily Star.