domestic partner 
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Fri Dec 09, 2005 at 07:57:37 AM EST
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After weeks of silence on the issue, the editorial board of the state's second largest newspaper is urging Ocean (and Monmouth) County's freeholders to pass domestic partner benefits for county employees. Extend benefits to gay partners:The Ocean County freeholders should drop their opposition to extending domestic-partnership benefits to county employees. This would finally allow a county Prosecutor's Office investigator dying of lung cancer to pass along her pension benefits to her domestic partner.
The freeholders have resisted the request by Laurel Hester of Point Pleasant primarily on financial grounds, citing the impact on the state's deficit-laden pension system. Freeholder John P. Kelly also has voiced concern that a domestic partnership resolution would violate the sanctity of marriage.
The freeholders are wrong on both grounds. This is a matter of civil rights, a matter of fairness. The state Domestic Partnership Act provides health and pension benefits for state employees and permits counties and local governments to do the same for their employees. The Ocean freeholders should join their colleagues in Bergen, Hudson, Mercer and Union counties, as well as more than 100 municipalities, in passing a resolution extending domestic partnership rights. The Monmouth County freeholder board should do the same.
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Wed Dec 07, 2005 at 09:43:04 PM EST
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 At the freeholder meeting tonight in Ocean County, over 100 residents packed the meeting room to support Lt. Laurel Hester, the cancer-stricken cop trying to get domestic partner benefits so she can pass on her pension to her partner.
Among those who turned out were cops, clergy - including Lutheran, Unitarian and Methodist ministers from the area, and gay and lesbian groups. The clergy cited scripture about compassion and justice for your fellow man, and one clergy member kneeled before the freeholders begging them to relent. In all, about 20 people spoke - pleading for justice - and without exception, each strongly supported Laurel. Many everyday county residents came out to express their outrage at the freeholders' disgusting heartlessness.
According to a resident who attended "There was not a dry eye in the house, except for the freeholders, some of whom rolled their eyes and snickered at times."
(there's more below...)
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Mon Dec 05, 2005 at 11:52:40 PM EST
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(bump - promoted by jmelli)
Laurel Hester, a police officer dying of lung cancer, has been denied her pension benefits by Ocean County's freeholders because she is a lesbian. Her struggle and the freeholder's grotesque decision has spread to over 140 papers across the country and the world.
On Wednesday, Laurel Hester and her partner will attend the Freeholder's meeting in Ocean County and speak to them face-to-face.
Laurel's courage has already resulted in two counties passing domestic partner benefits, yet her own freeholders cowardly throw up morality as a smokescreen for denying her the same benefits they have double-dipped into.
Please come out and show your support for Laurel. The meeting is this Wednesday, December 7 at 4:00 pm, in Room 119 of the Ocean County Administration Building, 101 Hooper Avenue, Toms River.
Ocean County freeholders
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Sat Dec 03, 2005 at 02:41:01 PM EST
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From the Associated Press:Gay couples face uncertain legal landscape
UPDATE: The Guardian (UK) is also carrying this story. Only through an act of heartless, hate-filled stupidity could Ocean County's freeholders bring so much negative attention to their county. Congratulations.
In New Jersey, one of a handful of states with a domestic partnership law, activists were dismayed by two recent cases dramatizing the law's limitations. In one case, Ocean County officials refused to approve the transfer of death benefits to the lesbian partner of a cancer-stricken law enforcement officer, Lt. Laurel Hester. In another case, also involving lesbians who registered as domestic partners, 66-year-old Betty Jordan is suing the state because of a ruling that she is not entitled to the couple's home and cars after her partner's death in July.
Steven Goldstein, chairman of Garden State Equality and one of New Jersey's leading gay activists, said he was optimistic despite the two cases.
"The Hester case proves how progressive the state is," he said. "The outrage from the entire state is unbelievable - it brings home to legislators how narrow and insufficient the domestic partnership law is." The State Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday unanimously approved a bill which would, among other things, extend the benefits provided by the domestic partner law to allow partners to receive inheritances from each other upon death.
While the legislature takes positive steps to improve the lives of all New Jerseyans, these five men (the Ocean County freeholders) are so afraid that two women might ruin their marriages, that they treat them like second-class citizens.
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Sat Dec 03, 2005 at 10:22:12 AM EST
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A letter to the editor titled Freeholders made the right decision in the Ocean County Observer is a great example of the type of people who are causing residents to be ashamed to live in Ocean County (below the fold):
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Fri Dec 02, 2005 at 04:31:53 PM EST
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I've received information from an Ocean County local that the single most effective action which may pressure Ocean County's freeholders to change their minds about granting domestic partner benefits would be a boycott of Six Flags Great Adventure, which is located in Ocean County. According to people familiar with county politics, Six Flags "wields big, big, big time power" in Ocean County and is one of the few areas where non-county residents can have a major impact on the situation.
This boycott is also being supported by the Big Gay Picture.
You can contact Great Adventure at (732)-928-1821 or NJComments@sftp.com or by snail mail:
Six Flags Great Adventure
P.O. Box 120
1 Six Flags Blvd.
Jackson, NJ 08527
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Fri Dec 02, 2005 at 09:40:24 AM EST
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Last night, Union County freeholders voted unanimously (9-0) in support of granting county employees domestic partner benefits. According to one person who attended the meeting "[the freeholders] all cited Laurel Hester as their inspiration". Lt. Hester has served in Ocean County's prosecutor's office for 23 years and has inoperable cancer. She would like to pass her pension benefits on to her partner, which is the only way she would be able to afford to keep their home, but the Ocean County freeholders have refused to grant her those benefits.
Last week, Mercer County also cited the situation in Ocean County as the reason why they were acting to pass domestic partner benefits. The person at the freeholder's meeting continued: "I watched in tears - even if Ocean County doesn't budge, Laurel has already helped so many with her courage and I wish she had seen it."
If the Ocean County freeholders hope that this situation is just going to fade away, they are sadly mistaken. They are the laughing stock of not only New Jersey, but the entire country and if tourism declines next summer, they shouldn't act surprised that people don't want to visit the homophobia capital of the world.
The next Ocean County freeholder's meeting is Wednesday, Dec 7th in Room 304, Third Floor, Administration Building, 101 Hooper Avenue, Toms River. If you're from the county, come out in support of Lt. Hester.
You can also contact the following people and let them know how you feel:
County Administrator
Alan W. Avery (732) 929-2147
Freeholders CountyConnection@co.ocean.nj.us
Gerry P. Little: (732) 929-2001
Joseph H. Vicari: (732) 929-2002
John P. Kelly: (732) 929-2003
James F. Lacey: (732) 929-2004
John C. Bartlett, Jr: (732) 929-2116
County Tourism Director
Barbara Steele - (732) 929-2000 bsteele@co.ocean.nj.us
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Sun Nov 27, 2005 at 09:06:07 PM EST
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Across the pond, the UK Gay News is covering Lt Laurel Hester's situation:How this situation – and the thousands of others that go unnoticed – can arise in the United States puzzles us at UK Gay News. America proclaims itself as the leader of the world. But when it comes for basic rights of same-sex couples living in a long-term relationship, the country is probably in the bottom quartile.
The old chestnut about family values and sanctity of marriage just does not wash. America has one of the highest divorce rates in the world and is where a pop star can get married for the weekend.
The word “humbug†comes to mind. And is this instance it applies to the Freeholders of Ocean County Meanwhile, an editorial in today's Ocean County Observer slams the OC freeholder's hypocricy:Never mind that the freeholders have demonstrated stupendous greed through their own history of feeding at the public through, often in jobs that helped boost their own pensions.
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Sat Nov 26, 2005 at 02:58:55 PM EST
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The five homophobic Ocean County freeholders (Gerry P. Little, John P. Kelly, James F. Lacey, Joseph H. Vicari, John C. Bartlett Jr.) denying Lt. Laurel Hester her pension benefits because she is a lesbian.
It's a slow news day, but Lt. Laurel Hester's simple request to pass on her pension benefits to her partner continues. In an editorial by Richard Schiff, Editor In Chief of the Greenwich Village Gazette, he writes on the next meeting of the Ocean County freeholders. Schiff notes that on December 7th, supporters of Lt. Hester will be out in force to hold their feet to the fire: On December 7th a very vocal and determined force backed with Lawyers will attend the next meeting of the Ocean County Board of Chosen Freeholders. These dedicated people are not prepared to take no for an answer.
I urge all citizens of conscience to be there to lend support and show the Freeholders that we value Lieutenant Hester's 24 years of service to the community enough to treat her as equal in all ways with every other officer.
Let her die in the arms of someone who loves her. Who that is is none of anyone's business. Choosing to turn Lt. Hester down and rejecting her basic rights should not be a decision the Freeholders get to make without a great uproar of injustice from the citizens.
From a few days ago - the Ocean County Reporter has video of the rally in support of Hester, where 200 supporters were joined by Congressman Frank Pallone.
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Fri Nov 25, 2005 at 10:16:45 AM EST
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A powerful editorial in yesterday's Ocean County Observer on Lt. Laurel Hester's struggle to attain domestic partner benefits for her partner. I wouldn't be doing it justice to just quote a portion of it, so go read the whole thing.
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Tue Nov 22, 2005 at 11:38:10 PM EST
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A tragic story, which only Republicans could possibly make worse:When lung cancer finally kills Laurel Hester -- and it will, in a matter of months -- she wants to know that her domestic partner, Stacie Andree, won't lose their home in Point Pleasant.
That legacy, however, is in doubt.
Ocean County's freeholders have refused to act on a request from Hester, an investigator for 23 years in the county prosecutor's office, to provide domestic partner benefits for gay and lesbian employees under a state law enacted last year. Without a resolution by the freeholders, her pension benefits cannot go to Andree.
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The surviving spouse benefit amounts to about $13,000 a year and would be paid from the state pension fund. For Andree, an auto mechanic, the money would "mean the difference in whether or not she can stay in the house," Hester said. The domestic partnership law that was passed leaves it up to each local government to decide whether or not to provide the benefits to partners. But the Republican freeholders in Ocean County have blocked them from receiving benefits...
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