A UW-Madison graduate student is part of a group of six lesbian couples seeking domestic partner benefits in a lawsuit filed against the state of Wisconsin Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union.
Jody Helgeland, who is also a research specialist at the university, is the lead plaintiff in the suit, Helgeland v. Department of Employee Trust Funds.
The ACLU is hoping to achieve domestic-partner benefits for all state employees, which would include UW System employees. A similar lawsuit 12 years ago resulted in a Wisconsin intermediate appeals court decision that has allowed the state to continue to deny partner benefits.
\This is a matter of basic fairness-of whether gay and lesbian employees should be compensated less than straight employees for doing the same work,"" said ACLU of Wisconsin attorney Larry Dupuis.
Because Helgeland is a UW-Madison employee, the UW System Board of Regents is specifically named in the lawsuit.
""It's an equal-protection lawsuit, so the [plaintiffs] are naming their employers,"" said regents spokesperson Doug Bradley.
Bradley noted the interesting situation in which the regents now find themselves, as they have long lobbied Gov. Jim Doyle and the state Legislature to fund partner benefits. Doyle included $1 million in funding in his 2005-'07 budget proposal, but the Joint Finance Committee declined to include it in the final budget that the Legislature is composing currently.
""It's kind of ironic that we would be endorsing this benefit and being sued for not providing it, but that's part of being a state agency,"" Bradley said.
While Helgeland receives health benefits from the university, her partner of 10 years, Jessie Tanner, who suffers from severe asthma, allergies and acid reflux, does not. An ACLU statement said the couple's modest income does not allow Tanner to afford health insurance, which increases her monthly medication costs from an estimated $75 to more than $600. Tanner sometimes has to forego purchasing her medications.
UW-Madison is the only Big Ten university that does not offer domestic partner benefits.
