�Significant others� to get family and funeral leave

by Anthony Glassman

Columbus--State employees may soon be granted family and bereavement leave for issues involving their �significant others,� after a public hearing was held on May 26.

The hearing was on adding the term to the definition of immediate family in the Ohio Administrative Code, and the change is being pushed by the office of Gov. Ted Strickland.

The definition, according to Equality Ohio, identifies a �significant other� as �one who stands in place of a spouse and who resides with the employee.�

The issue now moves to the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review, which will examine it in June.

The administrative code applies only to state agencies and their employees.

The order does not include benefits like health and life insurance, which are extended to many state workers and, for married ones, their spouses.

Courts have ruled that including domestic partners in areas previously limited to spouses does not violate Ohio�s 2004 constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and civil union.

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that the marriage ban amendment does not affect domestic violence laws that include people �living as a spouse.� The ruling said that the amendment only bans legal status that has all of the attributes of marriage--a marriage substitute such as civil union.

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