Durango, Telski offer gay couples benefits

The City of Durango (CO) decided last week to offer benefits to the partners of homosexual employees, treating them the same as heterosexual couples, becoming one of at least 60 municipalities across Colorado to do so.

The move comes at a time when Californians voted to rescind a right that gays once had: the right to marry. And other states such as Florida and Arizona are barring gay couples from ever gaining that right.

Durango city council members said the rule change will have a small financial impact, and that it was a simple move in a city that prides itself on being “progressive.”

So how does Telluride, another town with a progressive political bent, deal with same-sex couple benefits?

“I don’t know,” said town manager Frank Bell. “It’s never come up.”

Bell said he didn’t know of any same-sex couples working for the town who might need benefits.
And if there were, Bell isn’t sure how the town’s insurance companies would handle the situation.

“It’s not addressed in the handbook, it just simply is not addressed,” he said. It was a question of the policies of the town’s insurance companies, not the town, he said.

The Telluride Ski and Golf Company has addressed the question, and says its policies treat gay and lesbian couples the same as heterosexual couples. Like the town, though, no same-sex couple has yet asked for the kind of benefits that spouses normally get, such as health benefits.

“We haven’t been approached on it,” said Telski spokesperson Maryhelyn Kirwan. “We haven’t crossed that bridge yet, but when we do we will offer the same benefits to same-sex couples as we would to heterosexual couples.”

Durango Mountain Resort, too, offers benefits to same-sex couples.

One of the reasons the City of Durango addressed the issue was because of Sherri Dugdale, a city employee who has been with her partner for 12 years. The two are registered in California as domestic partners, Dugdale said. But in Durango, her partner has had to pay high premiums for an individual health policy. After the rule change takes effect, her health costs will drop.

“The city of Durango is really very progressive and just a great city to work for, and so I applaud the city council for doing this,” Dugdale said. She saw the change as a matter of equality, not special rights. In fact, she points out, “the minute you deny other people rights that you have for yourself, then you’re conserving special rights for yourself.”

Durango city council member Michael Rendon said the impact to the city’s budget would be minimal, since only one or two couples would be affected.

“Its such a miniscule amount,” he said. “It’s not like huge sums of money pouring out, but for those people it makes a huge difference.”