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Some private health plans exempt from new anti-bias code. In one of the first cases to test Washington's landmark gay-rights law, state officials said Friday that they had no jurisdiction in a dispute over access to health care because federal law supersedes the state statute.
Gay-rights advocates, who had been watching the case closely, said the state's decision was not a setback and will have little impact on future cases. Last year, after a nearly 30-year effort, lawmakers passed a bill to ban discrimination in employment, housing and lending on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. In August, a heterosexual woman named Sandi Scott-Moore became one of the first people to ask for protection under the law. Scott-Moore claimed that her employer discriminated because it did not provide benefits to her male partner, while providing benefits to partners of gay and lesbian co-workers. On Friday, the Human Rights Commission said a federal law that governs some health care plans pre-empts the state civil-rights law invoked in Scott-Moore's case. "Effectively, because of the federal law, in this type of case, our hands are tied," said commission director Mark Brenman. The law he referred to is ERISA, or the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. Gay-rights advocates said the decision did not worry or surprise them. Many said they knew the federal law commonly supercedes local employment laws. And they said the federal statute governs only a small percentage of employers. "I actually believe it's not that far-reaching," said Lisa Stone, executive director of the Northwest Women's Law Center. Many advocates said the case concerned a topic not covered in the gay-rights law, which prevents discrimination in housing, employment, credit and insurance. It does not require employers to give benefits to partners of gay and lesbian workers, advocates said. "We never addressed the issue of health benefits in the bill -- just as the underlying anti-discrimination law does not address the issue of health benefits," said state Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, a prime sponsor of last year's bill. "Frankly, that's a separate discussion, and one that we're having this legislative session, as we seek to extend domestic partnership benefits for same-sex couples," he said. "There's no story here. Our progress has not been curtailed. Our protections remain in place." Source: seattlepi.nwsource.com |
