CONTACTAbout UsCAREER OPPORTUNITIESADVERTISE WITH USPRIVACY POLICYPRIVACY PREFERENCESTERMS OF USELEGAL NOTICE
© 2025 Equal Entertainment LLC.
All Rights reserved
All Rights reserved
By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
We need your help
Your support makes The Advocate's original LGBTQ+ reporting possible. Become a member today to help us continue this work.
Your support makes The Advocate's original LGBTQ+ reporting possible. Become a member today to help us continue this work.
A gay couple in Los Angeles was awarded compensation Tuesday for being denied spousal benefits by the federal government.
U.S. ninth circuit court of appeals judge Stephen Reinhardt ruled in February that federal public defender Brad Levenson and his partner, Tony Sears, were wrongfully denied health benefits on the basis of sexual orientation, which is banned by California law. He is now ordering the federal government to calculate and pay what it owes to him.
Levenson and Sears married July 12, 2008, according to court documents. When Sears tried to register with the federal government to collect spousal benefits shortly after the wedding, the Office of Personnel Management turned down the couple's enrollment, citing the Defense of Marriage Act. Levenson appealed, and the judge ordered that the government compensate the couple for outside health coverage.
"If Sears were female, or if Levenson himself were female, Levenson would be able to add Sears as a beneficiary," Reinhardt wrote in an opinion. "Thus, the denial of benefits at issue here was sex-based."
From our Sponsors
Most Popular
Watch Now: Pride Today
Latest Stories
ICE frees transgender asylum seeker from detention after Oregon court order
July 15 2025 5:45 PM
PEPFAR likely to be exempt from spending cuts
July 15 2025 4:50 PM
Man who endured antigay exorcism wins historic settlement with Church of England
July 15 2025 2:40 PM
Boston opens new park named after murdered Black transgender woman Rita Hester
July 15 2025 12:31 PM
Rochester group launches world’s first trans laureate program
July 15 2025 12:00 PM