Bellevue plans to extend benefits to gay partners

Bellevue city leaders said Tuesday they will provide the same employment benefits to partners of gay workers as they now provide to married partners.

The benefits, which could begin this year, have long been the goal of gay-rights activists and gay city employees, some of whom have lamented being unable to get time off to attend family funerals or pay for health care for their partners.

Bellevue Mayor Grant Degginger said the City Council has been interested in providing the benefits, but a lawsuit filed last week by a national gay-rights group "certainly brought to our attention the need to move more quickly."

That group, Lambda Legal, sued on behalf of three Bellevue public-safety employees. The group said it will drop the lawsuit if the city adopts equal benefits for all employees, regardless of sexual orientation.

"It is welcome news that the city is now going to work up a domestic-partnership proposal, and we will look forward to reviewing the details," said Jennifer Pizer, a Lambda Legal attorney.

The group says partners of gay employees should be offered the same benefits as those offered to married partners, including health care, bereavement and family leave.

After the lawsuit was filed last week, Bellevue city leaders said they hadn't approved domestic-partner benefits because they were too expensive, amid the rising cost of providing health insurance.

Many other public employers in Washington already offer domestic-partner benefits, including the state, Seattle, Burien, Spokane and King and Snohomish counties.

Last weekend, Gov. Christine Gregoire signed a bill that creates a domestic-partnership registry with the state for same-sex and unmarried older couples. The bill will provide some rights already extended to married couples, including hospital visitation and the ability to inherit a partner's property without a will.

Degginger said the city will look at the bill to help determine how to define a domestic partnership.

The City Council will begin discussing the new benefits next month. Degginger said he would like to implement the benefits by the end of the year, but it could be quicker.

The city will have to work with several different unions before coming up with a plan.

Pizer said the city should move quickly.

"They are seriously behind the times," she said, "and there is urgency with this issue because their employees have not had equal compensation for years."

Ashley Bach: 206-464-2567