Proposed
Arizona initiative would strip benefits from gay
partners

If Arizona voters approve a constitutional amendment banning government-sponsored benefits to unmarried couples, more than 400 Arizonans would lose their medical insurance and other benefits. The initiative will go on the November 2006 ballot if the necessary 183,917 valid signatures are gathered. It would not affect private businesses, but the measure would prohibit cities, towns, and counties from giving legal status to unmarried couples, gay or straight.

A newspaper analysis shows that 439 of the 142,273 state and local government employees have unmarried partners who receive health insurance or other benefits in Arizona. Most of them work in Phoenix, Tempe, Scottsdale, Tucson, and Pima County.

Opponents of the initiative say its effects would be much broader in future years if it is approved. "Thousands of families would be impacted in the future because governments would no longer be allowed to offer the benefits," said Steve May, cochairman of the Arizona Human Rights Fund, a gay and lesbian advocacy group. May and other opponents say the measure would prevent the state, cities, towns, and counties from offering domestic-partner benefits in the future. It eventually would mean that thousands of unmarried couples working for the government would have no chance of ever having the benefits, according to May.

Proponents of the measure said unmarried couples shouldn't be entitled to the same benefits as those who are legally married. Peter A. Gentala, legal counsel for the Center for Arizona Policy, one of the main proponents of the amendment, said the goal is to make sure nothing undermines the status of marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Arizona law prohibits marriage for same-sex couples, but such unions are not banned in the state constitution. Supporters said that a constitutional amendment would be the surest way of protecting the sanctity of marriage from "activist judges" who might overturn the law. (AP)