Benefit Enrollment Procedure Simplified for Same Sex Partners

Duke has announced revisions to the benefit enrollment procedure for same sex partners of employees to provide greater consistency with the procedure for spouses of employees who are married.

The revisions, effective November 17, 2003, were the result of recommendations from the Women's Initiative at Duke. One of the issues that emerged from the study was the disparity between what is required to sign up for same sex spousal equivalency benefits and what is required for employees who are married.

"What we were hearing was that there were a lot of hurdles to go over in order to sign up for same sex partner benefits with the previous enrollment procedure," said Kerry Poynter, program coordinator at Duke's Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Life. "Regardless of sexual orientation, the enrollment process for registering partnerships should be more closely aligned, which I believe is achieved with the revised enrollment procedure. The revised procedure greatly simplifies the registration requirements for same sex partners, and many of the hurdles that we saw in place before no longer exist."

Under the previous procedure, employees with same sex partners were required to produce documentation to support an affidavit for registering a life partner. The new enrollment procedure no longer requires additional documentation to support the affidavit. Employees only need to submit an affidavit to reflect a binding legal commitment between same sex partners, similar to a marriage certificate. These affidavits will be kept confidential in Human Resources and would be available in the event of death of an employee so that certain benefits could be paid or continued.

"Duke was one of the first employers to make benefits available to same sex partners in 1994," said Lois Ann Green, director of Benefits. "The change, which reflects our continued commitment to be inclusive and supportive of the needs of all faculty and staff, helps simplify the enrollment process."

The changes to the enrollment procedure for same sex partners also includes a modification of the health and dental enrollment form that will be used for all employees to include definitions of spouse, child, and same sex spousal equivalent.

For more information about benefits for same sex partners, please visit the HR web site at or call Human Resources at 684-5600.