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Ohio Legislator Sues Miami University Over Domestic Benefits

Posted on: Thursday, 24 November 2005, 00:00 CST

By Shaheen Samavati, Dayton Daily News, Ohio

Nov. 23--COLUMBUS -- A state legislator filed a lawsuit Tuesday that said Miami University's benefits policy recognizes "marriage-mimicking" relationships and is in violation of a 2004 constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

"State taxpayers voted overwhelmingly not to have tax money go to these things, and I'm just standing up for that," said state Rep. Tom Brinkman, R-Cincinnati. "Nobody else seems to be doing it, so I guess I have to."

The lawsuit filed in Butler County Common Pleas Court contends the university unconstitutionally recognizes a legal status for relationships of unmarried individuals that imitates marriage.

"We're not approximating the design of marriage, we're trying to offer benefits to get the best employees. It has nothing to do with marriage," Miami spokesman Richard Little said.

David Langdon, an attorney for Brinkman, said if they won the lawsuit, benefits would be taken from Miami faculty signed up for the program, offered since June 2004.

Those who lose benefits should "go get a job that gives them benefits. They don't have a ball and chain around them," Brinkman said.

Private companies can do whatever they want with their money, he said.

That's what the university is afraid of, Little said.

"A large measure of the top universities in the country do offer these types of benefits, and these are the universities we compete with to get good faculty," he said.

Ohio, Ohio State and Cleveland State universities offer similar benefits. Wright State does not, but allows workers to take medical or sick leave to care for a domestic partner.

Little said while 10 percent to 15 percent of the Miami's budget comes from the state, most of it comes from tuition and fees.

Brinkman, the father of two Miami students, filed the complaint as a payer of taxes and tuition.

"It's hard to imagine that his children or anyone else's children's education is negatively impacted by the fact that their university is offering domestic partner benefits," said Alan Melamed, the former campaign manager for opposition to the gay marriage ban amendment.

"I think most people in Ohio last year didn't like the idea of gay marriage, but are not opposed to people having benefits or protections," he said.

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Copyright (c) 2005, Dayton Daily News, Ohio

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Source: Dayton Daily News

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