Same sex benefits study defeated
By Robert P. Mills, The Layman Online, June 26, 1999
FORT WORTH – By a vote of 215-304-2, the Fort Worth Assembly rejected an overture from the Twin City Area Presbytery requesting that the Board of Pensions undertake a feasibility study of “providing same-sex couples in long-term committed relationships the same benefits accorded to married couples, and to report its findings to the 212th General Assembly (2000).”
Some commissioners expressed concern that the proposal was moving the debate over the ordination of self-avowed practicing homosexuals into another arena, a move that would harm not only the Board of Pensions but the denomination overall. “Is this another way of changing the ordination standards?” Jan Farley, minister from San Diego Presbytery, asked.
Definitions questioned
The proposal came to the Assembly with a positive recommendation from its Committee on Pensions, Benefits and Presbyterian Publishing, which had amended the overture to limit the study to “lay employees who are members of the benefit plan.” During floor debate, an amendment to insert the word “unordained” before “lay employees” was defeated.
Those speaking against the study noted that the words “long-term” and “committed” were undefined. As an example, one commissioner said he was committed to his wife before he married her. Another noted that he was married after knowing his wife less than a year, and wondered if theirs would have been characterized as a long-term relationship.
Others noted that such benefits would be discriminatory, excluding opposite sex couples who chose to live together rather than marry. Nick Porter, minister from Southern New England Presbytery said, “What concerns me is not so much gay and lesbian relationships as boyfriend-girlfriend relationships. The committee’s definition redefines marriage. That is a standard that ought not be redefined.”