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Under pressure of a lawsuit like that filed against Bellevue earlier this year, the Redmond City Council this week voted unanimously to grant benefits to the domestic partners of city employees that are equivalent to those offered to spouses of married employees. The move came only after the Eastside city had recieved a letter threatening suit by Lambda Legal.

Lambda Legal had threatened the city with legal action on behalf of two veteran city police officers, Cmdr. Kristi Wilson and Lt. Betsy Lawrence. In a strongly worded letter to the city on June 19, the organization called on city leaders to heed years of requests on the part of both employees and several unions, and grant equal benefits to all employees.

"We are pleased that Redmond has joined its municipal neighbors and other mainstream employers by adopting an equal family benefits plan for its gay and lesbian employees, said Lambda Legal Staff Attorney Tara Borelli. "Other cities should follow Redmond's lead by recognizing that their dedicated lesbian and gay employees deserve equal pay for equal work."

PI columnist Susan Paynter had given Redmond's council members added incentive to finally equalize its benefits package in a strongly-worded column published the morning before the vote was taken.

It's not a new benefit; it's one the city already provides. Certainly it's not "special treatment," says Redmond Police Cmdr. Kristi Wilson, a 20-year law enforcement veteran with 14 years on the Redmond force.

And, contrary to what cities and companies always say just before they cave, it's really not about money.

"If I were to leave (the job), they likely would hire a heterosexual to replace me and have to provide the same benefit they're denying me," Wilson told me. "The financial aspect just doesn't hold water. Look at the hundreds of companies around us. Microsoft, lots of other municipalities. The state. And they're not in bankruptcy."

The health-coverage scare struck home in January when Wilson was diagnosed with breast cancer. Thank God it wasn't her partner who wouldn't have been covered, or something catastrophic striking their two kids, now nearly 6 and 3 1/2 years old.

Equal benefits actually give employers an advantage in hiring and holding on to high-quality workers, not to mention the fact that it's just plain right, Wilson says. "There are human beings attached to this issue. I'm not an unknown commodity. They know me. My partner stays home to raise our kids. We are mainstream America."

Paynter's column, coming on the heels of Lambda's letter, may have helped humanize the issue for the council.

Redmond Police Lt. Betsy Lawrence has 23 years in law enforcement. She and her partner have five kids -- all but one of whom lives with them full time -- to feed and care for. And she has a deep sadness about the way we seem to crawl toward equality. "Employees with same-sex partners deserve the same compensations as those who are able to marry their different-sex partners," she said.

Ultimately, she'd love some legislative stroke of the pen to put this patchwork approach to bed. But, for now, this seems to be the way we do it.
Lawrence lauds the Redmond Police Department as the best bunch of dedicated, fair-minded folks she's ever worked with. If it were up to them, she said, they'd do this today. Instead, it's at the door of City Hall. ...

But, for Lawrence, her partner, and their kids -- 15, 11 and 5 and 19-month-old twins -- it's a matter of basic security. When the twins were born a month premature, the fragility of both their health and the family finances really hit her. Had she not rushed her already prepared adoption paper work to the courthouse within hours of the birth, hundreds of thousands of dollars from a month of ICU costs would not have been covered.

Lawrence thinks that everyone who works -- certainly those with jobs that put them in jeopardy -- ought to be able to handle a health care crisis without facing financial ruin.

She went into law enforcement in the first place in order to make people feel safer, to ensure that those who've already been hurt won't be harmed any more. "I just want the best for everyone, really," she said.

Labels: equal rights, politics, Washington