Employers do not illegally discriminate on the basis of gender when they exclude unmarried heterosexual partners from spousal benefit plans open to same-gender couples, a federal judge ruled in Manhattan June 8. U.S. District Court Judge Robert Patterson, Jr found that phone giant Bell Atlantic's policy did not violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act's prohibition against discrimination "on the basis of sex," because males and females who are "similarly situated" are treated the same, and only heterosexual couples have the option of marrying in order to qualify. An appeal is likely on what is believed to be only the second federal court ruling on this issue.

Patterson wrote, "A woman with a female domestic partner is differently situated from [the male] plaintiff in material respects because under current law, she, unlike plaintiff, is unable to marry her partner." The ruling continued, "This difference in the ability to marry, which does not bear on the quality or stability of the relationship, is material in the context of a compensation plan which grants benefits to employees' chosen partners. NYNEX's policy of distinguishing between unmarried opposite-sex couples and unmarried same-sex couples reflects and remedies differences between these persons which are material in this particular context, and does not discriminate between similarly situated men and women."

Veteran NYNEX cable splicer Paul Foray filed his $485,000 lawsuit against NYNEX' parent Bell Atlantic in May 1998, seeking for his female domestic partner, Jeanine Muntzner, the "eligible dependent" benefits of medical, dental and vision care that NYNEX extended to its employees' same-gender domestic partners in 1996. Foray and Muntzner met the criteria established for gay and lesbian domestic partners to qualify.

Among the attorneys representing Foray was Los Angeles lawyer Thomas F. Coleman, executive director of the American Association for Single People, who said the decision was an insult to unmarried workers across the U.S. and declared he would file an appeal.