For lesbian couple, a sense of equality looms

Robyn Zeiger and Dori Anne Steele were married Aug. 28 - a day the same-sex couple said epitomized progress.

"We timed it so it would be the same day [President Barack] Obama got his nomination, which was also the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s march on Washington," Steele said. "It was an important day. And we, too, felt like, finally, we were getting the rights we had waited for. But then they were taken away."

Although the couple has been together for almost 26 years and have married twice - once in Canada and for a second time this August in California - state law defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman, denying Steele and Zeiger, who has been a lecturer in the family science department for more than 20 years, the benefits offered to their opposite-sex counterparts.

If the state legislature approves Gov. Martin O'Malley's (D) proposed budget - which state lawmakers must vote on before the end of the legislative session in April - gay and lesbian university employees and their partners will be granted health benefits, saving Steele and Zeiger more than $10,000 annually due to Steele's health problems.

"I'm a self-employed massage therapist," Steele said. "Sometimes I have part-time jobs that don't offer any insurance, and I have a degenerated disk in my back."

Steele, who underwent surgeries on her shoulder, lower back and ovaries in 2007, said her medical treatments cost the couple nearly $800 a month - costs that would be covered by the university if they were a heterosexual couple.

"I've been working harder than I should just to pay for my insurance," she said. "If I give too many massages, it aggravates my back."

The proposed extension would allow Maryland to join Washington and 15 other states in offering equal benefits to the same-sex domestic partners of state, including university, employees.

"Opposite-sex couples might be a little upset because the legislation would only extend benefits to same-sex domestic partners," Zeiger said. "But they have the option to get married. Whereas if we could get married, this wouldn't be necessary because we'd automatically have marriage benefits. It's not that same-sex couples don't want to get married; we just can't. This is a good interim step."

Though Zeiger and Steele said the policy would be invaluable to those who would benefit from its passage, the number of couples who stand to benefit is hard to predict. Both university and state officials, however, said the number is likely to be small - up to 300 state employees in a workforce of about 70,000 are expected to sign up for the extended health benefits at a predicted cost of $1 to $3 million.

"That's part of the very interesting issue," Zeiger said. "In all the years I've been at this university, I know maybe one or two other couples here in a similar situation. There was a couple who left because they couldn't deal with the fact that there was no domestic partner benefits."

University officials also predict that by extending health benefits, potential "talent" that would otherwise likely opt to work elsewhere would now consider employment at this university.

"It represents a modest cost, depending on who signs up," university President Dan Mote said. "We had supported this long before others signed on. We have lost candidates due to the absence of benefits. But fundamentally, it's just the right thing to do."

Though LBGT advocates say the extension of health benefits is a "good first step," many conservative organizations still oppose the extension of benefits, saying it could be the first step toward allowing same-sex couples to marry.

"This is a controversial issue, so you wouldn't expect everyone to agree," Mote said. "If everyone agreed, we wouldn't have had to wait so long."

The university considered extending health benefits to same-sex couples in 2007, though the measure was shot down by the Board of Regents, a 17-member board that oversees the university system, because they said it would require a change in state law.

But the couple is hopeful. They believe O'Malley's domestic partnership benefits plan will be approved and will help solve many of their persistent problems, and added they hope to see the university apply the policy to other benefits, including tuition remission for family members.

"We have a lifetime commitment to each other," Steele said. "It's nothing more or less special than what heterosexual couples have."

"But this one little thing affects our every day life in so many ways," Zeiger added. "It doesn't hurt anybody, and we just want to have what everyone else already has."

Senior staff writer Allison Stice contributed to this report. langdbk@gmail.com