Opinion: The issue is fairness

The murder in July of a gay Tampa police officer has stirred a laudable effort to remove a discriminatory relic from the city's pension plan. Government officials, however, need to proceed carefully, lest it become another divisive debate on gay rights.

The narrow issue is this: The city should allow its employees to designate a beneficiary for pension benefits. As it stands, only the "widow or widower" is eligible to receive the benefits of deceased police officers. Inasmuch as Florida law recognizes only heterosexual marriages as legal unions, the net effect is that the pension creates two classes of employees, regardless of the sacrifice all officers and their loved ones may have to make.

Advocates and opponents of same-sex unions are trying to use the case of murdered Officer Lois Marrero for their own political agenda. She is not the issue; nor should it be the job of the city or the pension board to made value judgments about Marrero's private life.

City council members Linda Saul-Sena and Rose Ferlita support the change, as does Kevin Durkin, who takes over soon as the police union's elected president. The council should prepare a local bill to change Tampa's pension plan and have the measure ready for the 2002 legislative session. The change could be made next year if advocates focus on the issue at hand: fairness.

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