LAWYER ARGUES THAT PHILA. BENEFITS REDEFINE MARRIAGE: From the Philadelphia Inquirer

Philadelphia's benefits for same-sex partners represent an illegal city effort to redefine marriage, a lawyer seeking to overturn the law told the Pennsylvania Supreme Court yesterday.

Dennis Abrams said City Council's landmark 1998 gay-rights laws overstepped Philadelphia's legal authority in creating life-partnership status. He called that status analogous to marriage.

"The City of Philadelphia, I submit, doesn't have the right to do that," Abrams said. He argued that only the state has the right to define marriage.

But attorney Barbara Mather, who represented Philadelphia, said the benefits were separate from marriage, and provided far fewer rights and responsibilities. ...

Yesterday's arguments represented the latest round in a decade-long battle over Philadelphia's gay-rights law. In addition to providing government employee health benefits to same-sex partners, the legislation exempts registered life partners from paying the land-transfer tax on property sales between members of a couple.

After waiting in City Council for five years, the provisions became law in 1998, only to be challenged by a group led by evangelical activist William Devlin. Upheld by Common Pleas Court in 2000, the legislation was struck down by Commonwealth Court in 2002.

The state Supreme Court agreed late last fall to hear the city's appeal. ...

In an interview yesterday, Devlin noted with irony that he was doing what conservatives accused liberals of doing in last year's cases: using the courts to undo democratically decided laws.

"I'm taking a page out of the playbook" of the gay-rights activists, he said.

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posted by Eve at 3:46 PM VOTE

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