Koch to Grant Mourning Leave for Life Partners

Mayor Edward I. Koch said Saturday he will issue an executive order granting bereavement leave rights to homosexuals and unmarried heterosexuals whose “domestic partners” die.

The mayor told the Associated Press that the city also would consider extending health insurance benefits to the same city workers included in the bereavement order in the next collective bargaining session with unions.

Koch said he would issue the order within several weeks. City workers currently are granted four days of leave to mourn the death of any relative living in the same house.

The Daily News, in today’s editions, said the executive order would set the stage for allowing unmarried and unrelated life partners the same health and insurance benefits as those granted to married couples.

‘Up to the Unions’

But, the mayor emphasized: “It will be up to the unions and pressure by union members to expand the health benefits. I’m only talking about bereavement leave in my executive order.”

The mayor noted that the pool of money available for city employees would not grow significantly. Union negotiators would have to choose if they wanted pay increases or the health benefits for their members, Koch said.

The mayor said the next union negotiations are not scheduled until next year, after the mayoral elections.

Koch said his executive order or the collective bargaining measure does not mean he recognizes gay marriages.

Says Concept Differs

“This has nothing to do with gay marriages,” he said. “I’m against that. This is a different concept. This is closer to what the Court of Appeals did.”

The state’s highest court on Thursday ruled that a partner in a long-term homosexual relationship may take over his or her partner’s rent-controlled apartment when the leaseholder dies.

That decision marked the first time that any top state court in the nation has recognized a gay couple to be the legal equivalent of a family, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer said.