Palm Beach
College Grants Partner Benefits to Employees

Trustees for Palm Beach Community College decided to grant LGBT and unmarried employees partner benefits after a 3-2 vote on Tuesday. The board, after a year of delays, voted to offer health insurance to partners of college employees, according to the Palm Beach Human Rights Council.

The Florida Community Colleges Risk Management Consortium, which provides health insurance to 22 Florida colleges including PBCC, requested the college extend benefits to employees' partners. The council said in a statement that they have been urging the trustees to vote on partner benefits since 2005.

"Until this evening, each time the trustees were poised to provide equal access to family benefits, trustees Williams and Kirby prevented that from happening," wrote Rand Hoch, executive director of the Palm Beach HRC. "Today, they finally ran out of ways to delay and deny."

The state of Florida currently does not grant domestic-partner benefits to state employees. The state is scheduled to vote on a same-sex marriage ban in November. (The Advocate)