Obama to grant federal workers time off to care for same-sex partner's kids

"President Obama will soon expand the rights of gay workers by allowing them to take family and medical leave to care for sick or newborn children of same-sex partners, administration officials said Monday," according to The New York Times. "The policy will be set forth in a ruling to be issued Wednesday by the Labor Department's wage and hour division, the officials said. Under a 1993 law, people who work for a company with 50 or more employees are generally entitled to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for a newborn or for a spouse, son or daughter with 'a serious health condition.' The new ruling indicates that an employee in a same-sex relationship can qualify for leave to care for the child of his or her partner, even if the worker has not legally adopted the child… In April, Mr. Obama announced plans to grant hospital visiting rights to same-sex partners" (Pear, 6/21).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.