Catholic Charities to challenge Maine city's domestic partners ordinance

By The Associated Press

12.07.02

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PORTLAND, Maine — Catholic Charities Maine announced this week that it would challenge the city's domestic partners ordinance in court.

The social service agency refuses to provide health coverage to unmarried domestic partners of its employees. Compliance with the ordinance would constitute a violation of Roman Catholic doctrine opposing homosexuality, cohabitation by unmarried couples and premarital sex, according to John Kerry, chief executive officer of the Catholic agency.

The agency's board of directors, which includes Bishop Joseph Gerry and Auxiliary Bishop Michael Cote of the Diocese of Portland, does not want to create a perception that the church condones sexual activity outside of marriage, whether it is homosexual or heterosexual, Kerry said.

The announcement surprised Portland officials, who believed they were close to a compromise that would have allowed the agency to retain $87,000 in federal housing and community development grants.

The compromise would have involved a health plan that provided benefits to one adult living with Catholic Charities employees. That person could have been a spouse, parent, domestic partner or some other adult.

Catholic Charities intends to forfeit the money, which was earmarked for counseling and child care programs and will try to raise the funds elsewhere.

Mayor James Cloutier says the agency's decision, while understandable, is regrettable.

"We'll defend our position and see what the court says," Cloutier said. "But the city has no right, nor would it be moral or proper, to discriminate against people in the expenditure of public funds."

The ordinance requires social service agencies that receive federal housing and community development funds through the city to offer employees' domestic partners the same benefits available to spouses.

The ordinance does not apply to all contractors that work with the city. Councilors feared that such a broad ordinance would increase the cost of city projects and exclude many companies already working for the city.

This summer, the Salvation Army opted to forgo a $60,000 grant for a meals-on-wheels program rather than violate its religious principles.

Gene Libby, attorney for Catholic Charities Maine, said the ordinance is at odds with long-standing federal laws relating to employee benefits, equal rights and religious freedom.

The most relevant legal precedent, Libby said, is a case in which the Air Transport Association of America successfully challenged San Francisco's domestic partner ordinance. The case turned on the federal Employment Retirement Income Security Act, which prohibits state and local regulation of employee benefits.

Although San Francisco lost the case, the airlines and other companies doing business with the city agreed to provide the benefits.