The University of Virginia will allow same-sex partners of students and employees to join the university’s gyms. Gay and lesbian staff members had pushed the university for years to add the benefit, according to the Daily Progress.
Earlier this month, Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell informed the university it could provide gym memberships to adults who live with an employee or student but are not their spouse. UVa had been reluctant to grant the benefit, citing a 2004 opinion by then-Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore that said the school should not grant benefits involving relationships not recognized by Virginia law.
Effective July 1, the DP reports, the Plus One program will allow a person living with a faculty or staff member to purchase a gym membership for $270 a year.
McDonnell’s ruling applies to “significant others” of the opposite sex, does it not? I can sympathise to some degree with the plight of gays, who do not possess the right to marry in Virginia. As long as they’re in a committed, long-term relationship, why shouldn’t they enjoy the same civil rights as heteros? But I have no particular sympathy for unmarried heteros. Why should the prerogatives and benefits of marriage be extended to a couple in a transient relationship just because they happen to be shacking up?
It looks like we’re stepping onto a very slippery slope here. What grounds are there to discriminate against anyone for any type of domestic arrangement? How long until others apply the gym-benefit precedent to health insurance and other benefits?
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