City Council extends equal benefits to married gay couples

A month after Mayor Greg Nickels issued an executive order recognizing same-sex marriages, the Seattle City Council yesterday unanimously approved legislation that would give married gays and lesbians on the city's payroll the same benefits that opposite-sex couples now receive.

While council members heralded the move as "historic," the change to city ordinance is really more symbolic than it is substantial.

Seattle has been offering domestic-partner benefits to same-sex couples since 1989. The value of those benefits is subject to federal taxes, which can exceed $500 a year. Yesterday's action doesn't change any of that.

However, it does:

• Extend the transfer of city-issued business licenses to the spouse of a same-sex married couple in the event the other spouse dies, just as it does now to the spouse in an opposite-sex marriage.

• Extend legal representation to the spouse of a city volunteer who is in a same-sex marriage, if that volunteer is sued while performing city work. Current law requires the city to defend the spouse of a volunteer in an opposite-sex marriage.

• Extend benefits, including sick leave, family and medical leave and bereavement leave to gay employees in same-sex marriages.

"Ten years ago this city showed leadership when we passed legislation establishing domestic-partner benefits," said City Council President Jan Drago. "This (action today) expands that to include same-sex married partners, making it easier for them to receive these benefits."

Rather than having to complete paperwork proving their marriage, same-sex married couples will need only to check a box. Unmarried gays involved in same-sex relationships will have to continue to complete an affidavit attesting to their relationship.

Randall Leskovar, pastor of Calvary Chapel in West Seattle, who sued the mayor three days after he issued his executive order, said he was disappointed the city was still heading down a "wrong path."

Leskovar called yesterday's council action "another step in tearing down and redefining marriage."

But Councilman Nick Licata, chairman of the Public Safety, Civil Rights & Arts Committee and a sponsor of the legislation, said offering such benefits levels the playing field for all married couples and is long overdue.

Lornet Turnbull: 206-464-2420 or lturnbull@seattletimes.com