Teachers without benefits

Campus LGBT advocacy groups have voiced concerns about the lack of benefits for the partners of gay University employees.
Kelly Price, chair of the Auburn Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual Caucus, a faculty-run gay advocacy group, said Auburn currently will not grant benefits to couples without a marriage license--something the state of Alabama will not issue to gay couples.
"We're still trying to get that added to the employment nondiscrimination policy," Price said. "I myself am transsexual, so I've been working to have that added for many years. The administration really hasn't moved on anything. They kind of like to avoid the issue, I think."
Price said the current policy has caused potential employees to avoid the University, including the original founder of AGLBC, Becky Liddle, who moved to Canada in 2000 to work at the University of Toronto and marry her wife.
Karla McCormick, executive director of payroll and employment benefits, said there have been deliberations regarding a change in the policy, but the resources the University would need are not yet available.
"A committee with representatives from campus constituency groups recently looked at a number of employee benefit questions, including this one," McCormick said. "At that time, there were several other pressing benefits issues that needed to be addressed, and, as there had been a lack of expressed interest in expanding benefits beyond the current eligible population, the committee agreed to table this topic for future consideration. While we're still looking at the issue, the committee hasn't recommended a change in policy at this time."
Bliss Cook, junior in biomedical sciences, said that while she still loves Auburn, she can see why these kinds of policies might discourage potential employees from working here.
"I can understand it," Cook said. "If they can get better benefits somewhere else, then they might as well go there."
Despite the current policy, various supporters of LGBT rights still choose to work at Auburn, including Gwen Thomas, associate professor of engineering.
Thomas has played a large role in helping the LGBT population in the community and said she understands the difficulties they face.
Thomas is intersex, meaning she was born indistinguishable as male or female; soon after birth she underwent surgery to make her a male, only to later find she identified more as a female.
Although Thomas said she believes Auburn's policies are discriminatory, the University provides the resources she needs to make a difference with her work.
"I stay here because I can do good research here," Thomas said. "The reason I am alive is not because I am an intersex person. The reason I am alive is because I have a mission, and that mission is to protect people with the research I do. I make things that keep people from getting hurt and injured, and I've had a lot of opportunities to do that here."
Price said she also enjoys living in Auburn and has experienced relatively little discrimination here beyond certain policies enforced by the University.
"(It affects me) a little bit," Price said. "It affects insurance and costs and things like that, survivorship benefits and so forth. With the marriage thing there's still the question of whether it is recognized under Alabama law. We're still a step below the point of worrying about benefits. This being Alabama, they have to get things forced on them from the federal level, I think."
Such a policy may not be implemented for some time, however, and Thomas said she will do everything she can to help the LGBT community until a change is made.
"Part of that protecting people from getting hurt is helping people in the LGBT community deal with the stress," Thomas said. "It ranges on a spectrum from people who would just rather not be around you to people who openly despise and hate you and wish you were dead, so it becomes quite unpleasant to live that way, and I can understand that."
Thomas said while she has lived through the office of many Republican presidents, starting with Dwight Eisenhower, she has never seen a group of GOP candidates as socially conservative as those currently running, making her think the LGBT community will not be getting a reprieve as soon as she'd hoped.
"Let's go back to around 2000 when you had candidates who were people you would consider fiscal conservatives or moderates," Thomas said. "Look at this election where Romney is the most moderate of the group. Some of them are radically, radically social conservatives, and you can see a very strong shift to the right."
Price said the current conservative political atmosphere may be one of the reasons the administration might choose not to change the policy.
"Generally the faculty is supportive of LGBT issues, but the administration tends to just sit on it and let it die," Price said. "I guess they're concerned about donors or finances or whatever. That was an issue with Dr. (William) Walker. He was concerned about how the Board of Trustees would react; that was years ago."
As an Auburn student, Cook said she feels the University should be more tolerant, even if a loss of money is possible.
"In my opinion, I think (the policy) should change," Cook said. "They weren't true donors of Auburn if they can't give to the Auburn population, no matter what they are."
Thomas said despite her opinion of the political outlooks represented in the upcoming election, she still thinks the mainstream public is becoming more willing to compromise on gay rights, and big businesses are becoming more tolerant as well.
"Companies like Starbucks are coming out saying they will be nondiscriminatory in their policies," Thomas said. "This is not the big deal to them. How somebody has sex with someone else should not be anyone else's business. For someone to be so focused on that in order to hate someone, to me, is a far larger type of perversion than for someone to be born with a certain orientation."
The current government policy regarding the LGBT community is based on religious beliefs not everyone believes in, Thomas said, and she hopes the government will eventually dissolve any law denying rights to a certain group.
"People have the responsibility to choose for themselves." Thomas said. "They also have the right to choose for themselves. If you want to impose frameworks of lifestyle on someone, there's a fine line between religious dictatorship and having responsible laws for society."