The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

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Write for Us
Want your voice to be heard? Submit a letter to the editor, send us an op-ed pitch or check out our open positions for the chance to be published by the Daily Utah Chronicle.
@TheChrony
Print Issues

Letter to the Editor: The stark realities of Amendment 3 exist at the U

Editor:

I read The Chrony letters to the editor stating Amendment 3 wouldn’t harm the families of Utah. Let me show you exactly how it does harm us here at the U.

It’s open enrollment at the U and I am constantly reminded that as a partner and stepmother in a same-sex couple, I am worth nothing to my employer.

The U pays a portion of my medical premiums. I am only required to pay $44.82 per month for some great benefits.

However, if I want to add my partner, I pay $353.60 per month, and add my stepdaughter, $618.54 per month. I pay the full premium for both my partner and stepdaughter even though I am financially responsible for their medical bills just as much as a married stepmother.

It doesn’t make any sense to me.

If I were legally married, my employer would pay a portion of both my spouses and children’s premiums. I would pay $73.44 for a spouse and $106.86 for spouse and child.

Let me emphasize this fact: The U pays more than $500 in benefit premiums to a straight, married couple with children than it does to me, even if we do the same job.

That’s $6,000 a year more in compensation because of their sexual orientation and willingness to have children.

Those insurance rates are a slap in the face to every LGBT employee of the U. The administration has basically said, “We will pay you $6,000 less a year in benefits because of your ‘life choice.'”

Guess what? Getting married and having children is a ‘life choice’ as well-it has nothing to do with equal compensation for equal work.

I wouldn’t care if the U said, “Here’s a check for the difference because you are worth the same to us as a straight, married parent who does your same job,” but it doesn’t. The U would rather us LGBT employees shut up and pay the premiums as a blessing.

That is the effect of passing Amendment 3-LGBT families unable to afford health insurance. I would think the U would be much more progressive than that.

I’ve got news for the U administration: There are many private employers who do pay equal compensation for equal work.

The sooner the U wakes up and realizes it is discriminating against LGBT families, the sooner it will stop losing its valuable employees to the private sector.

Connie Anast

University Hospital Staff

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