Gay at U.Va.: Part 1

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Gay at U.Va.: Part 1

Is the University doing enough to support its LGBTQ employees?
By Tom Christensen, Focus Editor on August 29, 2011

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Although the University blames current Virginia codes for barring it from offering health benefits to the partners of same-sex employees, Claire Guthrie Gastañaga, a former chief deputy attorney general for the commonwealth who now runs her own consulting firm, suggests that the University does in fact have the ability to extend health benefits to same-sex partners despite the state’s current codes.

Under Virginia code 23-69, the University is defined as a corporation. Gastañaga said this definition gives the University the ability to exercise certain corporate powers, such as extending health benefits to same-sex partners. Gastañaga also noted that, while the University is subject to the control of the General Assembly and the Virginia constitution, Virginia legislators would have to pass a law that specifically prohibits the University from extending health benefits to same-sex partners to prohibit such an action.
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The University could also legally extend health benefits to same-sex partners by making them available to “other qualified adults,” Gastañaga said. Such a measure, which has been adopted by other universities such as the University of Michigan, would allow University employees to add to their benefits plan another person living in their household, so long as that person meets certain requirements.