Geico pressured over gay couple treatment
PlanetOut Network


Married same-sex couples in New York are getting mixed messages from Geico Insurance Co. about coverage and rates, and Lambda Legal urged the company on Monday to treat all married couples uniformly.

In a press release, the legal agency noted that two gay couples who were married in Canada were treated differently by the New York-based insurance company: one couple's marriage was recognized for a joint policy, while another's was not.

"New York law says that marriages validly performed elsewhere must be respected here," Lambda attorney Alphonso David said in a prepared statement.

"Geico must stop its practice of randomly recognizing some gay or lesbian couples, but not all of its married gay or lesbian policyholders."


~

Vatican: Bush wants bishops to back his agenda
From Suzanne Malveaux
CNN Washington Bureau


WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush has urged the Vatican to ask U.S. bishops to become more involved in promoting his conservative social agenda, a Vatican official told CNN on Monday.

Bush favors a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage and restrictions on abortion rights in the United States.

He pressed his case during a brief discussion with the pope's secretary of state, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, on June 4, shortly after Bush's visit with Pope John Paul II in Rome, Italy.

The president "complained that the U.S. bishops were not being vocal enough in supporting [Bush] on social issues like gay marriage, and abortion," a Vatican official privy to the discussion said.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan confirmed that Bush met with Sodano, but would describe the meeting only as "a good private discussion" in which "they discussed a number of shared priorities."


~

Proposal denying homestead exemption for gays removed
By The Associated Press
An overhaul of the state's homestead exemption laws was approved Monday by the House -- after language some said could deny the exemption to homosexual couples was removed.

The proposed constitutional amendment was approved 95-6. It still needs approval in the Senate, then from the state's voters.

The measure by Sen. Reggie Dupre, D-Houma, was originally drawn up to ensure that widows and widowers who have adult children will not lose their homestead exemption -- which keeps the first $75,000 of a resident-owned home's value from being taxed.

It was needed, Dupre and others said, because of attorney general's opinions and state audits that questioned many assessors' practice of granting the exemption on property owned "in division" -- basically co-ownership.