New Jersey Couple
Fights to Keep DP Benefits

The American Civil Liberties Union is assisting couple Ralph Martinelli and Robert Ryan in their battle to retain domestic-partnership benefits from Martinelli's employer, Konica Minolta Business Solutions USA.

Martinelli, employed by KMBS for the past five years, had been working in New Jersey and recently moved to a KMBS location in Idaho for his partner, Ryan, who is a survivor of the September 11 terrorist attacks. While the couple registered as domestic partners in New Jersey in 2005, the move to Idaho requires them to reregister as a couple in order to maintain the KMBS partner benefits. However, no domestic-partnership registry exists in Idaho.

Martinelli believes it crucial that they maintain benefits since Ryan requires expensive medical care for the trauma he experienced, which has forced him to take several leaves of absence from his work and drain his retirement fund in order to survive, the ACLU reported. Without the help of his partner's benefits, the ACLU states that Ryan will be forced to go without care.

"I'm still working at the same company, doing the same job. Why shouldn't I be able to cover my partner in Idaho like I did in New Jersey?" states Martinelli.

ACLU New Jersey legal director Ed Barocas said in the ACLU statement, "Underlying all of this confusion and mistrust engendered by terms like 'civil union' and 'domestic partnership' as opposed to 'marriage,' same-sex couples are asked to prove that their relationships aren't imaginary every time they move, and employers take advantage of the lack of uniformity to treat people unfairly." (The Advocate)