August 7, 2000

Coke to offer same-sex partner benefits
___WASHINGTON (BP)--Coca-Cola Co. will extend health-care benefits to the same-sex partners of its employees, giving the homosexual rights movement another summer victory to go with the same actions by the big three auto makers.
___Coca-Cola's decision--like those of General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler Corp.--adds to a growing trend among American businesses of granting to the partners of homosexual workers health benefits previously reserved for the spouses of married employees.
___Domestic partner benefits offered to employees of the Walt Disney Co. has been cited among reasons for the Southern Baptist Convention's boycott of all Disney-related businesses.
___More than 3,400 private and public employers provide domestic-partner benefits, according to the Human Rights Campaign, the country's largest homosexual political organization.
___By its action, Coca-Cola became the 99th member of the Fortune 500 to grant such benefits, the Human Rights Campaign reported. Six of the top 10 in the Fortune 500 offer such benefits.
___Last year, the newly merged Exxon Mobil Corp. bucked the trend. The company rescinded Mobil's domestic-partner policy. The only company previously to roll back domestic-partner benefits was Perot Systems Inc., based in Texas.

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