Editor’s Note: Clarifications have been made to this story regarding the insurance plans offered by the University to employees with same-sex dependents.
When English professor Michael Bibler arrived on campus two years ago, the University would not offer him marriage benefits — most importantly, a health care plan for him and his husband.
Louisiana did not recognize Bibler’s marriage, despite being legally married in the United Kingdom and Connecticut.
“They explicitly told me they could not offer marriage benefits,” Bibler said. “I had to try to negotiate better terms in my contract to help cover my partner’s benefits. It wasn’t an even coverage. I don’t want to try and convey that, but the dean did try to work with me a little bit. It would have been much easier and better all-around if they just said you could [have] your partner on it.”
As states around the U.S. began to individually legalize same-sex marriages, public universities and their insurance agencies began extending benefits to same-sex couples. According to USA Today, in Florida, immediately after the Supreme Court ruled that Florida’s ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, State Group Insurance, the insurance agency in control of public university benefits, informed the state’s universities that the agency would enroll same-sex spouses into their coverage plans.
The story has not been the same in Louisiana. After the Supreme Court’s ruling that legalized same-sex marriage in all 50 states, Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration stated that court clerks with religious objections would not have to give licenses to same-sex couples.
Jindal’s opposition ended with U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman ordering all state agencies to recognize gay marriage and officially striking down the state’s same-sex marriage plan, which was then affirmed by the Federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and later the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
With state agencies directed to recognize same-sex marriage, the LSU Office of Human Resource Management announced in a broadcast email to all employees that it would begin enrolling employees and their dependents into the LSUFirst Health Plan.
For those employees who opt into LSUFirst, enrollment and coverage can begin immediately. However, this does not guarantee employees who opt into the state-provided Office of Group Benefits health plan coverage for their same-sex dependents. According to University Director of Media Relations Ernie Ballard via email, the University must wait for approval by the state before putting newly enrolled same-sex couples on the OGB plan into effect.
“We are, however, restricted from providing actual coverage until the OGB, which controls eligibility for state-provided benefits permits us to do so,” Ballard said in the email. “Following our recent request for information to the OGB, we were told by that office that they were awaiting a directive from the state’s Division of Administration.”
Ballard said once the Office of Group Benefits gives the University permission, it will immediately provide coverage to the qualified spouses of employees.
For employees like Bibler, there can be a sigh of relief that partners will be included in the University’s health insurance plan. Same-sex couples not on LSUFirst, however, will have to wait for the state’s permission.
Bibler said this is not the end of the fight for same-sex couples in America, and the Supreme Court’s decision does not protect couples from discriminatory action. While Bibler could not lose his job in higher education without cause due to University policy, said he worries about other areas in life.
“If I was renting and a landlord in Baton Rouge decided, ‘I’m not going to rent to a gay couple,’ I have no recourse to fight that discriminatory behavior,” Bibler said. “To me, the marriage decision is only the beginning of what needs to happen for full equality in the U.S.”