In May 2011 Andrew Shubin and Justine Andronici, along with the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania and the American Civil Liberties Union's Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Rights Project, filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of State College Area School District employee Kerry Wiessmann and her domestic partner challenging the district's policy of denying health insurance benefits to gay and lesbian domestic partners while providing those same benefits to heterosexual employees. Because of the policy, Wiessmann could not include Beth Resko, her partner of 25 years, on her family's health insurance plan.

On July 5, 2011, the school district entered a settlement to provide health insurance benefits to the gay and lesbian domestic partners of its employees and to amend its anti-discrimination policies for staff and students to include "sexual orientaion" and "gender identity".

Press Releases:

Attorney(s)

Andrew Shubin; Justine Andronici; Witold Walczak, Mary Catherine Roper (ACLU-PA); Leslie Cooper (ACLU's LGBT Rights Project); Stephen Harvey and Eric Rothschild (Pepper Hamilton, LLP); and Seth Kreimer of the University of Pennsylvania Law School

Date filed

May 18, 2011

Court

US District Court - Middle District of Pennsylvania

Status

Closed