.c The Associated Press
By CHARLES E. BEGGS
SALEM, Ore. (AP) -- An Oregon court has done what state lawmakers have been unwilling to do for years -- ban discrimination against homosexuals in the workplace.
The Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that the domestic partners of three lesbian employees at Oregon Health Sciences University were entitled to the same benefits given to the spouses of married employees.
The ``denial of insurance benefits to the unmarried partners'' of homosexual employees violated the equal protection provisions of the Oregon Constitution, the three-judge panel wrote.
Though the university and Oregon state government voluntarily began offering benefits to unmarried partners last June, the court ruling nailed down the obligations.
The ruling could require other state government entities to provide benefits to same-sex domestic partners, and to the thousands of teachers, police officers and others who work for local governments. Private employers were not specifically required under the ruling to offer the benefits.
A state official didn't mince words about the ruling.
``This tells Oregonians that discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, public and private, is illegal,'' said Deputy Attorney General David Schuman.
It was unclear whether the state will appeal the ruling.
The Oregon Constitution states that no law shall grant ``any citizen or class of citizens privileges or immunities, which, upon the same terms, shall not equally belong to all citizens.''
The court concluded that homosexuals are a distinct class and that it's beyond dispute that they ``have been and continue to be the subject of adverse social and political stereotyping and prejudice.''
Gay rights advocates, who have tried and failed since 1975 to get the Legislature to pass such an anti-discrimination measure, hailed the decision.
``The state court gave us a ban on discrimination in employment stronger than anything we could introduce in the Legislature in 23 years,'' said Jean Harris, executive director of Basic Rights Oregon, the largest gay rights group in the state. ``We love it. We'll take it.''
The court turned aside the university's argument that it made benefits available on equal terms to all married employees. The judges said that reasoning misses the point because homosexuals cannot marry.
``Accordingly, the benefits are not made available on equal terms. They are made available on terms that, for gay and lesbian couples, are a legal impossibility,'' the court said.
AP-NY-12-10-98 0553EST
