It's about time!

Here it is - the big legal battle that was one of the reasons for starting this blog. As I described here and here and here, the voters of Ohio passed a resolution to the state constitution that prevents state institutions from giving unmarried couples benefits that married couples traditionally receive.

Today after months of waiting, Ohio Representative Tom Brinkman finally sued Miami University over their continuing policy to grant Domestic Partner benefits in glaring opposition to Ohio's constitution.

On Nov. 22, Ohio state Rep. Tom Brinkman, R-Cincinnati, filed a lawsuit against Miami University, alleging that its current policy of granting benefits to employees in domestic relationships violates the state Constitution and favors employees involved in domestic "marriage-mimicking" relationships above married heterosexual employees.

Besides the fact that granting benefits to unmarried couples is against the Ohio constitution I always took issue with Miami's domestic partner policy. You see, Miami defines domestic partners as only same-sex relationships. In other words Miami does not give benefits to any unmarried heterosexual couples (whether it be common-law marriage or any other) with the flawed belief that these people could just "get married" if they wanted to.

It's interesting that Miami, Ohio State, and others have gotten away with violating Ohio's constitution for months, but in the end it was their refusal to create an inclusive definition of "domestic partner" that ultimately brought down the lawsuit. We'll see how this pans out...