Same-sex couples losing benefits

WASHINGTON, June 20 (UPI) -- U.S. gay rights activists said they worry that states that banned same-sex marriage are rolling back benefits for domestic partners of public employees.

Camilla Taylor, an attorney for Lambda Legal, said states have been trying for a long time to attack existing protections for gays and lesbians, making life difficult for non-traditional families, USA Today reported Wednesday.

According to the newspaper, the state of Michigan has gone the furthest by prohibiting cities, universities and other public employers from offering benefits to same-sex partners.

In Kentucky, that state's attorney general ruled this month that the universities of Kentucky and Louisville cannot offer benefits to gay or straight domestic partners.

A lawsuit in Ohio filed by state Rep. Tom Brinkman, R-Mount Lookout, asks the courts to bar Miami University in Ohio from offering benefits to same-sex partners of employees.

"When the dust settles, we'll have a national standard for marriage," Matt Daniels, president of Alliance for Marriage, a group that lobbies for a marriage amendment to the U.S. Constitution, told USA Today. "What is going on in the states is a dress rehearsal."