Mecklenburg DPB

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Mecklenburg Would Consider Domestic Partner Benefits

Special Report - April 7, 2005
The Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners may soon consider whether to begin offering domestic partner benefits to homosexual couples after Chairman Parks Helms expressed support for such a step this week, the Charlotte Observer reports. In comments made on April 25, Helms said that domestic partner benefits would help change county policy to curb discrimination against employees or outside agencies on the basis of sexual orientation. According to the Observer, Helms has been considering a policy change regarding domestic partner benefits for a period of time, but exactly when the issue will be brought before the board is still unknown. A number of objections have been raised against the proposal, including concerns over its validity under state law and its potential to increase medical expenses in Mecklenburg County. In addition to voicing concern over the moral implications of domestic partner benefits, commissioner Bill James, a fourth-term board member, said that implementing such a policy would raise the county’s medical insurance costs.

In North Carolina, only two counties and three municipalities have approved domestic partner benefits up to this point. Following months of public debate and controversy, the Durham County Board of Commissioners passed a measure in September 2003 that awarded domestic partner benefits to the homosexual partners of county employees. Less than three months later, Orange County passed a policy of its own that granted benefits for both heterosexual and homosexual domestic partners. In addition to Orange and Durham counties, domestic partner benefits are offered in the towns of Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Durham.

Information about the dangers domestic partner benefits pose to the definition of the family can be found in the North Carolina Family Policy Council’s research paper entitled “Domestic Partner Benefits."