Mich. Pro-Family Activists Condemn EMU Domestic Partner Policy
by Jim Brown
February 28, 2005
(AgapePress) - Eastern Michigan University is offering half-price tuition benefits to students involved in homosexual relationships with university employees. However, pro-family activists are calling EMU's domestic partner benefits policy not only controversial but unconstitutional as well.
Last year, Michigan voters added a marriage protection amendment to their state constitution. But despite the ban on homosexual marriage, Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti has decided to give special half-off tuition breaks to the homosexual domestic partners of university employees, provided the couple can legally prove they have been together for at least one year.
Local pastor and pro-family activist Dr. Levon Yuille of the Bible Church in Ypsilanti believes the EMU policy violates the state constitution. "Eastern Michigan's contention is that this is simply domestic partners who should the rights of maritals," he notes. However, he says the school's policy contradicts the feeling of the majority of the citizens, recently expressed at the polls.
"The people of Michigan spoke overwhelmingly in this last election that, no, marriage is an exclusive domain of a man and a woman," Yuille asserts, "so we have already sent a letter to our Attorney General to ask that this be looked into."
The Michigan pastor feels the EMU policy is extreme and will likely open up a Pandora's box of problems. He warns, "When you're saying that two cohabitating gays who call themselves a couple can have 50 percent off their tuition, you've got half the students, if not all the students [in Michigan universities who] could find something unique about their lifestyle possibly, [liable] to demand 50 percent off also. So I think it's terribly ill advised to make this kind of distinction and give this type of extra privilege to individuals who are practicing their type of lifestyle."
Yuille hopes Eastern Michigan University's homosexual tuition benefit plan will prompt Ypsilanti residents to repeal a city ordinance granting special protections based on sexual orientation. Meanwhile, he has asked Michigan Attorney General Mike Fox look into the legality of the EMU policy in light of the state's passage last year of a constitutional amendment banning homosexual marriage.
Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan, also sent a statement to A.G. Fox, denouncing the EMU domestic partner benefits policy. The Michigan pro-family leader asserted that the state's marriage amendment requires state university officials to recognize marriage as being only between one man and one woman. Also, he stated, "Conversely, government employers are prohibited from recognizing or treating homosexual relationships as equal or similar to marriage, which is clearly the intent and effect of EMU's unconstitutional policy."
According to an Ann Arbor News report, the AFA of Michigan president urged Cox to force EMU to stop offering the benefit. Glenn observed that by giving students involved in homosexual behavior a 50 percent tuition break, the state university officials are forcing taxpayers and other students to "make up the difference," thereby subsidizing behavior they earnestly believe is wrong.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
