Subject: Lotus Extends Company Benefits to Cover Domestic Partners of Homosexual Staff 
Date: Published: 9/9/91 (71 lines)
Source:  Wall Street Journal.  Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. 

    Lotus Extends Company Benefits to Cover
    Domestic Partners of Homosexual Staff
    ----
    By David Stipp
    Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

    CAMBRIDGE, Mass.  -- Lotus Development Corp., in a
 pioneering move, became the first large company to offer
 domestic partners of its homosexual employees the health and
 other benefits it offers spouses of married employees.
    The software concern, which employs about 4,000 workers,
 said its new policy requires gay and lesbian couples seeking
 to qualify for corporate family benefits to sign affadavits
 attesting they have marriage-like relationships.  Among other
 stipulations, partners must attest that they are each other's
 "sole spousal equivalent and intend to remain so
 indefinitely," that they reside together and that they are
 responsible for each other's welfare, said Russ Campanello,
 vice president, human resources.
    Lotus's new policy represents "a trend that seems to be
 growing in the private sector," said Ivy Young, director of
 the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's families project in
 Washington.  She added that a "large West Coast university" is
 expected soon to adopt a similar policy.  Lotus's Mr. 
 Campanello said that officials with 10 large U. S. companies
 called Lotus last week to ask about details of its new
 policy, which was first disclosed Friday in the Boston Globe.
 He added that in researching precedents for the policy, he
 learned that about 30 companies are "looking at" adopting
 similar ones.
    Ms. Young said that Montefiore Medical Center, in New
 York, was the largest non-government employer that previously
 adopted a similar policy.  The hospital, which employs about
 9,000, extended family benefits to homosexual couples in
 March 1991.
    A scattering of nonprofit concerns and smaller companies
 also have adopted such policies, including Ben & Jerry's
 Homemade Inc., Waterbury, Vt.; the American Psychological
 Association; Greenpeace; and the American Civil Liberties
 Union.  Municipalities that have extended benefits to
 unmarried "spousal equivalents" include Berkeley, Calif., and
 Seattle.
    Lotus's new policy won't extend benefits to unmarried
 partners of heterosexual employees, said Mr. Campanello.
 Unlike homosexual couples, heterosexual ones have the option
 of state-recognized marriage to qualify for corporate family
 benefits, he said.  The company's new policy represents an
 "issue of fairness and equality," he added.  "We're trying to
 level the playing field."
    Mr. Campanello said Lotus extensively researched for over
 two years how such policies work elsewhere.  "Like everybody
 else, we're concerned about benefit costs," he said.  "But
 we've seen no increase in costs" for other employers with the
 policies.
    In particular, he added, worry about increased benefit
 costs from spousal equivalents with acquired immune
 deficiency syndrome appears overblown.  "A typical AIDS case
 costs about $50,000 a year," he said.  By comparison, typical
 costs of a heart attack case are about $45,000 a year, and
 cancer cases "can cost far more."
    An estimated 10% of Lotus's employees are homosexuals;
 less than half of such employees are expected to qualify and
 apply for family benefit coverage, Mr. Campanello said.

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