Abstract
This Comment will focus on the battles that gay and lesbian workers face in their attempts to attain benefit parity in the workplace and how these battles are linked to the fact that their relationships lack legal status. Part I will discuss recent judicial decisions on the issue of employment-linked benefit availability to the same-sex partners of gay and lesbian employees. Part II will review two recent decisions, which although unrelated to employment, may have set the stage for a legal redefinition of the family, and may provide a means by which same-sex couples could attain the legal status required to guarantee employment-linked benefits for their partners. Part Ill will briefly outline other legal mechanisms same-sex couples are currently using to formalize their relationships. Part IV will discuss how one lesbian employee was successful in attaining employment-linked health benefits for her same-sex partner and the need for a uniform resolution to this issue across jurisdictions.
Recommended Citation
Averill, Sue Nussbaum
(1994)
"Desperately Seeking Status: Same-Sex Couples Battle for Employment-Linked Benefits,"
Akron Law Review: Vol. 27:
Iss.
2, Article 7.
Available at:
https://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/akronlawreview/vol27/iss2/7
Included in
Administrative Law Commons, Civil Law Commons, Family Law Commons, Health Law and Policy Commons, Sexuality and the Law Commons