BOSTON GLOBE
July 30, 1998
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe/

Benefits for gay partners approved

By Adrian Walker, Globe Staff

Lawmakers voted yesterday to allow the city of Boston to extend health insurance benefits to the partners of gay and lesbian city employees, a move House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran agreed not to block despite his own serious objections.

The bill passed the House unanimously, albeit with a nonbinding resolution attached by Finneran asking the city to extend the benefits to relatives of all other city employees. The Senate passed the measure shortly afterward, as Senate President Thomas F. Birmingham had predicted, and Acting Governor Paul Cellucci indicated he would sign the measure. [not so! see link below - jmr]

Passage of the home rule petition was a huge victory for advocates of the gay and lesbian community and for Mayor Thomas M. Menino. ''I think [Finneran] listened to a lot of people and kept open-minded about it,'' Menino said. ''He brought people to the table and listened to them. Sometimes in this business you get educated and move forward.''

It marked a dramatic reversal of fortune for the bill, which a frustrated Menino had pronounced dead after rejecting Finneran's proposed amendment to broaden the coverage to include relatives living in the households of city workers. But after days of discussions with city officials, lobbyists, and other legislators, Finneran agreed to step aside.

''We're very grateful that the speaker let this come to a vote unamended,'' said Arline Isaacson, cochairwoman of the Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus. ''He knew he didn't have to do it. He's evolving on gay issues.''

Susan Tracy, a former legislator and former top aide to Finneran who had come under pressure from gay and lesbian activists to persuade the speaker to relent, said Finneran did not cave in to pressure so much as he received an education. She recalled how he had supported the death penalty for years before emerging as an eloquent opponent.

''It's more of an issue about growing and learning and understanding different opinions,'' said Tracy, who is running for Congress in the 8th District.

Finneran said his proposed amendment was modeled on a BankBoston Corp. plan, and argued that the city's bill extended privileges to gays and lesbians that should apply to other relationships as well.

But he was clearly startled by the emphatic rejection of that notion by both Menino and gay rights advocates - and surprised to find himself being painted by some activists as homophobic. By Monday, he was pointing to his vote for the state's gay civil rights bill 15 years ago, among other pieces of legislation supporting gay rights, and clearly was in the market for a compromise.

''This legislation makes an important philosophical point,'' said its author, Boston City Councilor Thomas M. Keane, ''which is that the relationships of gays and lesbians should be treated in the same way as the relationships of heterosexuals.'' Like Tracy, Keane is a candidate to succeed US Representative Joseph P. Kennedy II.

Many city officials and advocates believed Finneran was missing the symbolic intention of the law. The less charitable argued that Finneran understood just fine, and was simply hostile to its implications.

''I think he is hostile to us but wants to give the impression that he is on our side,'' said Jean Weber, legislative cochairwoman of the Bay State Gay and Lesbian Democrats. Weber praised Menino for rejecting Finneran's proposed amendment.

In days of frenzied negotiations, activists worked to persuade Finneran that to radically amend the bill - to make it, in effect, a completely different bill - was unwise.

''We had the votes, and in the end that was one of the things that persuaded him,'' said Representative Byron Rushing, a South End Democrat and a longtime Finneran adversary who pushed for the compromise. ''He's always willing to debate as long as you're willing to keep arguing with him.''

Finneran, typically, refused to concede that he had given up anything. He said Menino had given his word in an hourlong conversation on Tuesday that he would send the resolution to the City Council, and hinted he would lobby councilors. He suggested that the legislation's proponents had come around to his way of thinking, rather than vice versa, by agreeing to his resolution.

But on the issue of whether he had been tempted to block the bill out of indifference to gay and lesbian interests, Finneran, saying he was misconstrued, was dismissive.

''I think everyone who met with me came away convinced that was not the case,'' Finneran said. ''In no way am I homophobic or hostile to the rights of gay people. The apologies will come later. I'm comfortable with myself.''

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[late-breaking news - Acting Governor Cellucci now says he will not sign this measure - see Boston Globe article at the following URL:
http://www.boston.com/news/daily/30/beacon_hill.htm]

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