Dennis Engelhard and Kelly Glossip were life partners for almost 15 years. They owned a home together. Glossip’s teenage son from a previous marriage, before Glossip came out as gay, considered Engelhard a stepfather. But Glossip will not be receiving survivor’s benefits from Engelhard’s pension.
Engelhard, a 10-year veteran of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, was killed last December after getting out of his patrol car to place flares at the scene of a traffic accident. Under Missouri state pension rules, if a trooper dies in the line of duty, his or her spouse is eligible for lifetime survivor benefits. For Engelhard, that would have been more than $28,000 a year.
Missouri pension law is clear about who is a spouse. In 2004 Missouri voters approved a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Neither the state Highway Patrol pension system nor Missouri law recognizes domestic partners.
Although the unmarried partner of a heterosexual trooper would also not be eligible for survivor pension benefits, that couple would have had the option of getting married. An option not available to Engelhard and Glossip.
Illinois, a bill, SB 2822, has recently been introduced that would amend the state pension code to allow a designated domestic partner to qualify as a surviving spouse for purposes of survivor and death benefits. The bill defines a domestic partner as a person of the same gender as the unmarried pension participant who:
- is at least 18 years old
- is involved with the participant in a long-term relationship
- has resided witht he participant at the same address for at least 12 months
- is not a close blood relative of the participant
- is not married to another person
- has an exclusive mutual commitment to the participant in which they agree to be jointly responsible for each other’s common welfare and to share financial obligations.
|