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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Feb. 20, 1997
issue of Workers World newspaper
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Gay news: victory against discrimination

By Shelley Ettinger

The workers of San Francisco have achieved another first in the struggle for equal rights. The city has forced companies that do business with it to stop discriminating against employees who are in same-sex relationships.

Starting June 1, employers with city contracts must offer the same benefits to workers' registered domestic partners as they do to husbands and wives. The law will apply to all employers-even the anti-gay officialdom of the Catholic Church.

San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown signed the law last November. It came as no great surprise that the business "community," from the Chamber of Commerce on, objected strongly to the new law.

A showdown between the city and two particular employers- United Airlines and the Catholic Archdiocese-quickly developed.

That was no shock, either. But did anyone foresee what would come next?

The bosses and bigots blinked.

San Francisco Supervisor Tom Ammi ano, a gay man, had introduced the law. He announced Feb. 7 that both United and the Church, after much anti-gay bluster, have agreed to comply with it.

Victory vs. discrimination

United is the biggest tenant at San Francisco International Airport. It has over 8,000 employees in the city and 86,000 worldwide. It does not provide domestic-partner coverage for any of them.

When the airline balked at obeying the San Francisco law, leaders of the Flight Attendants and Machinists unions joined with a group of lesbian and gay workers-United at United-to demand that the bosses comply. Ammiano said the city would refuse to authorize a 25-year lease for the airline's flight kitchen and equipment-repair facility.

The bosses saw the light.

United will get a two-year lease. "In the language of that lease ... is a commitment to full compliance with the domestic-partner ordinance," Ammiano said.

If United meets its commitment to obey the law within two years, it will get 23 more years on the lease. Keeping the pressure on the company will help ensure that happens.

The airline will not limit the benefits to San Francisco-based employees. United officials said they would extend domestic-partner rights to the entire work force.

"We're really claiming today as a victory for not only gay and lesbian employees but a victory for non-discrimination," said United at United founder David Tomb.

Workers employed by the Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco joined the celebration.

Church fathers had said they would never obey the law.

They had even threatened to sue the city.

Never say never-especially when there's a mass movement on the other side.

After a Feb. 6 meeting with Church officials, Ammiano announced that the Archdiocese will comply with the equal-benefits law.

The wording will be changed slightly. Rather than only employees who have registered domestic partnerships with the city being eligible, now employees may designate anyone in their household as a "spousal equivalent." The benefits will go to that person.

Somehow, this satisfied the Church, apparently allowing it to save face by not actually recognizing the domestic-partner registry. But the new wording actually extends the reach of the law, including same-sex couples but also other relationships.

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