NYS Assemblyman, Sam Hoyt, is passionate about his plan to help get domestic benefits for the life-partner of fallen Police officer, Patty Parete.
Parete was shot in the neck in the line of duty and has since undergone 8 ½ months of rehabilitation with hopes of regaining the full use of her limbs. Hoyt has been pushing for benefits for the couple, and said that he thinks that recognition of their union and the adoption of a policy that allows those benefits for city workers and their domestic partners is only fair.
"It's a common practice across the country and in New York State," Hoyt said. "Rochester, Albany, New York City and hundreds of private companies…it's very common [to give married benefits to life-partners] each with their own standards and practices, with multiple safeguards." Furthermore, Hoyt contends that we don't need a lawyer to reinvent the wheel. "I have the NYC regulations. I've studied them. There's no way they can be abused."
Parete's partner, nurse Maryellen Opalinski, is on extended leave from her job in order to care for Parete. As a result, she has to pay health care benefits out of her own pocket.
Mayor Byron Brown, faced with a police force that is waiting for raises and may lose the health benefits they have now, said he wouldn't make a move toward the adoption of domestic partner benefit policy unless he was approached by the union to do so.
When asked what the feedback is from other officers regarding the possibility of domestic partner benefits, an unidentified police officer, said, "I haven't heard a word from anyone else on the force, and we talk about everything. Nobody I know is talking about domestic partner benefits. We feel bad, but right now all we can do is have fundraisers."
"The control board needs to act quickly and decisively to ensure that gay couples get what straight couples already have," Hoyt said, "otherwise it's odd to say we're above bigotry."