FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 20, 2003

GLAD Files Suit Alleging Impermissible Discrimination by School District

(Manchester, CT) On June 2, 2003, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (“GLAD”) filed a complaint with the Connecticut Commission for Human Rights and Opportunities against the Manchester, CT Board of Education on behalf of teachers and school administrators who were denied health insurance for their same-sex partners.

The plaintiffs have all been in committed same-sex relationships for over twenty years. They are long-term employees of the Board of Education in a variety of different capacities, and they requested that the Board provide them with health insurance for their partners. The Board denied their requests, despite that married, heterosexual employees routinely receive such benefits for their families.

According to GLAD attorney Karen Loewy, who filed the complaint along with GLAD’s Civil Rights Director Mary Bonauto and Ruth Pulda, of the Hartford law firm of Livingston, Adler, Pulda, Meiklejohn & Kelly, P.C., “This is a matter of equal pay for equal work. By withholding a benefit of employment because an employee is gay and unmarried, the Board of Education has defied the anti-discrimination guarantees of this state.”

The Board’s denial deeply distressed Bill Brindamour, an elementary school principal who has been with his partner, Peter Tognalli, for twenty-four years. “We have worked hard to build a life together, and as we get older and plan for our retirement, my inability to obtain health insurance for Peter seriously impacts our financial and emotional well being. My non-gay and married colleagues are able to protect their families, but the Board is preventing me from doing the same thing.”

The complaint states that the Board of Education impermissibly used an employee’s marital status as a criterion for equal treatment in the benefits of employment by conditioning the receipt of health insurance for an employee’s partner on whether that employee is married. Further, the Board has placed this employment benefit out of the reach of gay and lesbian employees who cannot presently marry their same-sex partners.

“State law prohibits an employer from administering the terms, conditions and privileges of employment in a way that singles out certain employees for different treatment based on their sexual orientation or marital status.” Loewy added, “This is precisely what the Board of Education has done.”

Celebrating its 25th anniversary year, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) is New England’s leading legal rights organization dedicated to ending discrimination based on sexual orientation, HIV status and gender identity and expression.