CA STATE SUPREME COURT TO HEAR CASE ABOUT LESBIAN COUPLE VS. COUNTRY CLUB: From the San Francisco Chronicle

The state Supreme Court took on another major gay-rights case Wednesday, agreeing to decide whether California businesses can discriminate legally against same-sex couples, like the lesbian pair who were denied a family membership by a San Diego country club.

All seven justices voted to grant a hearing to plaintiffs B. Birgit Koebke and Kendall French, who appealed a lower-court ruling that said state civil rights law doesn't require businesses to treat married and unmarried customers equally. The club's policy was to grant family memberships only to married couples.

The women are challenging the ruling on two grounds: that the court interpreted the law too narrowly and that it denied equal protection to lesbians and gays, who can't marry legally in California. No hearing date has been scheduled. ...

California law prohibits discrimination based on marital status in some areas, like employment, housing and insurance. But the state's Unruh Act, which requires all businesses to treat their customers equally, does not list marital status as a protected category, although it does forbid discrimination based on sex or sexual orientation.

Two appellate courts, including the one that heard this case, have ruled that the Unruh Act does not cover marital status, but the state's high court has never ruled on the issue. ...

The policy "treats all unmarried individuals, male or female, and regardless of sexual orientation, the same,'' the appellate court said in a 3- 0 ruling. Requiring the club to treat same-sex domestic partners like spouses "would run contrary to the policy, as engrained in state statutes, supporting the institution of marriage," the court said.

more
posted by Eve at 8:55 PM | link

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home