Ala. Rep.: DP Benefits a Waste

By Trudy Ring

UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM X390 (FAIR USE .EDU) | ADVOCATE.COM

An Alabama state legislator wants to block the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s plan to offer domestic-partner benefits, saying the university shouldn’t “waste money by making a liberal or politically correct statement.”

State representative DuWayne Bridges is seeking support among his fellow Republicans for a yet-to-be drafted bill that would ban the use of tax dollars for such benefits, The Birmingham News reports.

Last month the university announced that it would provide health insurance coverage to employees’ domestic partners, both same-sex and opposite-sex, beginning January 1, and allowed them to begin signing up for the plan. UAB needs to offer the benefits to remain competitive for top talent, especially for its medical school, and “create a positive, supportive and diverse work environment in which faculty and staff can excel,” spokeswoman Dale Turnbough said this week.

Another state university, the University of Alabama at Huntsville, offers domestic-partner benefits, but UAB’s announcement drew attention because it is the first of the state’s “big three” universities to extend domestic-partner coverage. Neither the University of Alabama, located in Tuscaloosa, nor Auburn University offers such benefits, although the former is considering doing so.

Bridges called domestic-partner benefits “a misuse of taxpayers’ dollars” and said the plan violates the spirit of the state’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, passed in 2006 with 81% of the vote. Tim James, a Republican gubernatorial hopeful, has expressed support for Bridges’s proposal, contending domestic-partner benefits are a “tacit recognition of same-sex marriage and civil unions.” He issued a statement saying, “I will vigorously oppose this measure and will enforce the spirit of Alabama law defining marriage as a sacred union between a woman and a man.”

Democratic state representative Patricia Todd, Alabama’s first openly gay legislator, told the News that LGBT people “just want equality.” She added, “Like it or not, Representative Bridges, the world is changing and people are accepting more diversity.”

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Reader Comments

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Name: Bill
Date posted: 11/9/2009 11:15:45 AM
Hometown: Atlanta

Comment:
The LGBT community in Alabama is living with the bigotry and legislated discrimination of the christian republicans. It sounds simple but painfully true; equality will not be given until we all live open honest lives and demand the civil rights that a free society enjoys. We all have to stop supporting religious and political institutions that discriminate. Act up, act out and raise some hell until there is full equality.
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Name: Joe
Date posted: 11/7/2009 12:24:32 AM
Hometown: Fort Worth

Comment:
The South doesn't have a monopoly on ignorance & hate, and the east & west coasts have proven not to be the bastions of liberalism that they're made out to be by conservatives, but the backwardness in the South exceeds that of any other region in the nation. It's no coincidence that the South is more "religious" than any other region of the country.
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Name: Davya
Date posted: 11/6/2009 5:27:33 PM
Hometown: wynnewood, PA

Comment:
Not to you though Bruce. Explain to me in what way the South has been more progressive than the North.
Back to top Post a Comment
Name: Davya
Date posted: 11/6/2009 5:25:19 PM
Hometown: Wynnewood, PA

Comment:
haha! Well put my friend.
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Name: Franz
Date posted: 11/6/2009 5:23:20 PM
Hometown: Seattle

Comment:
I'm from Alabama originally and this legislator is just a conservative clone and no doubt in Alabama he will get support. But, how about applauding the decision by UAB rather than the typical regionalistic, elitist, metropole superiority complex. These "inbred, backwards and un-educated people" have been more effective at social mobilization than all of the educated, "progressive" politically correct city dwellers. Perhaps part of the reason they vote the way they do is because they are tired of getting called stupid, inbred, goat fuckers, superstitious and trailer trash. Many of those people are working extremely hard just to provide for their families while the elite in the Beltway dry up their savings and retirement. I am familiar with the backwardness in the South, but i am also familiar with the sense of entitlement in the "North" and West and how they harp on about how they are so progressive while they systematically exclude people on the basis of race and class.
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Name: Bruce
Date posted: 11/6/2009 4:07:19 PM
Hometown: New York

Comment:
Well, DuWayne (is that French or something...or did your parents...who are most likely brother and sister...not know how to spell?) you need to realize that the more you discriminate against the intelligent life in your state, the less intelligence your state will have. And from looking at it now, you're state is almost in the negative when it comes to intelligence.

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