From the New York Times

New Jersey Civil Union Board Hears Bias Charge

by Tina Kelley

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

TRENTON, June 18 -- The commission that monitors how well civil unions are working for New Jersey's same-sex couples met for the first time on Monday and heard about the first official discrimination complaint filed to the state.

In October, the State Supreme Court ordered the Legislature to create a law extending the same rights and benefits to same-sex couples as heterosexual couples. The Legislature responded by creating a separate status, civil unions, stopping short of calling them marriages.

J. Frank Vespa-Papaleo, director of the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights, said that since the law took effect in February, his office had received about 360 inquiries - but only one complaint -- from people who said they might have been discriminated against.

Steven Goldstein, chairman of Garden State Equality, a statewide gay-rights organization, said that his group had received 148 discrimination complaints and that people who had called his office with complaints were often shocked that they would not be protected under the civil union law.

"Couples have expectations, but they find that the law is not the panacea they though it was," Mr. Goldstein said.

He added, "We encourage people to get civil unions, to get what they can, but the law is deeply flawed and it's not working."

The review commission, which was established by the legislation, must report to the Legislature every six months.

Mr. Vespa-Papaleo, who on Monday was elected chairman of the 11-member Civil Union Review Commission, told the commission that the state received its first formal complaint on Wednesday.

In that complaint, Robert S. Kleid, a physician's assistant from Atlantic Highlands, said that his employers, Tri-State Professional Employment Organization, based in Manhattan, and Minimed Care of Chester, N.J., had denied him the chance to apply for health benefits for his civil union partner.

In a copy of the complaint, Mr. Kleid said that Tri-State's regional accounts manager said that because the company was based in New York, New Jersey's civil union law did not apply.

In a phone interview, Mr. Kleid said he was very angry when he could not get benefits for his partner of seven years. "This is the law now, and people have spent years on this, going to court and planning strategies, finally getting the Supreme Court to recognize it," he said. "I felt I just can't walk away from this."

Mr. Vespa-Papaleo's office will investigate the complaint to see if there is sufficient evidence of discrimination.

He noted that in similar cases, New Jersey employees were found to be eligible for family leaves allowed in the state, even if their employers were based in other states.

Tri-State did not respond to phone messages left on Monday.

Joe A. Komosinski, the state's registrar, said that on Friday, there had been 1,092 civil unions in the state, 671 between women and 421 between men; an additional 40 couples who had civil unions or marriages in other states had their commitments reaffirmed in New Jersey.