news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050802/ap_on_re_us/lesbian_country_club
AP Country Club Must Make Gays Even Offer By LISA LEFF, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 37 minutes ago SAN FRANCISCO - California's highest court ruled Monday that country club s must offer gay members who register as domestic partners the same disc ounts given to married ones a decision that could apply to other busin esses such as insurance companies and mortgage lenders.
The decision by the California Supreme Court dealt with a policy at the B ernardo Heights Country Club in San Diego that allowed only the children , grandchildren and spouses of married members to golf for free. Birgit Koebke, 48, an avid golfer who pays about $500 a month in membersh ip fees, challenged the policy after being told that her longtime lesbia n partner could only play as a guest six times a year while paying up to $70 per round. The court ruled that the policy constitutes "impermissible marital status discrimination." While businesses might once have claimed a legitimate business interest f or maintaining different policies for married couples and gay members wh o cannot legally wed, such distinctions are no longer justified under a sweeping domestic partner law that took effect in California on Jan. "The Legislature has made it abundantly clear than an important goal of t he Domestic Partner Act is to create substantial legal equality between domestic partners and spouses," Justice Carlos Moreno wrote for a five-j udge majority. "We interpret this language to mean that there shall be n o discrimination in the treatment of registered domestic partners and sp ouses." Koebke greeted the ruling, saying: "We aren't activists, we aren't politi cally charged. We just wanted to play golf together and we just really f elt we had every human right to do that." John Shiner, the lawyer representing Bernardo Heights, said Monday "the c lub will take whatever action is necessary to comply with the decision o f the Supreme Court." He would not elaborate on whether that means the c lub will start giving spousal privileges to the partners of gay or lesbi an members. Jon Davidson, legal director of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fu nd, predicted that the ruling would affect not just country clubs, but m ortgage lenders, insurance companies and other businesses that have sepa rate policies or fees for married and unmarried customers. "What the court said was that if a business in California provides benefi ts to married couples, it has to provide them equally to couples who reg ister as domestic partners," Davidson said. The ruling reversed two lower courts that sided with the country club. Bu t the court also said that the lesbian couple, who have been together si nce 1993 and registered partners since 1998, was not entitled to seek da mages "for being subject to discriminatory treatment" before the domesti c law kicked in.
Kendall French, right, and Birgit Koebke sit next to their pool in th e Tierrasanta neighborhood of San Diego, in a file photo from Sunday, Ma y 22, 2005. In a case was brought by Koebke, 48, an avid golfer who pays about $500 a month in membership fees at a country club, the California Supreme Court ruled Monday, Aug.
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