YSU HEALTH BENEFITS Issue 1 disheartens same-sex couple

Issue 1's passage puts this couple's hopes for health-care relief on hold.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Professor L.J. Tessier, known as "Tess," and Tara McKibben joke that they have become the poster children for the effort to persuade Youngstown State University officials to extend health insurance to same-sex domestic partners of YSU employees.
As the two middle-aged women stood recently on the porch of their North Side home, preparing to be photographed, they seemed younger as they bantered and laughed and ensured that each other's hair was in place for the picture.
McKibben, who has multiple sclerosis, placed her elaborately carved cane on the porch and squeezed next to Tessier on a narrow bench. They smiled into the camera, the portrait of a contented couple, one that has endured 15 years and has shared raising McKibben's son.
Behind them, the wind freshened, stiffening the Tibetan prayer flag that flies in their front yard. A colorful banner of orange, red, green and yellow, it is inscribed with prayers that Tibetan Buddhists believe are uttered each time the breeze blows.
Given YSU trustees' decision late last month to extend health care benefits to same-sex domestic partners at the school, it would have seemed that some prayers were answered.
But Ohio voters' approval of state Issue 1 amends Ohio's constitution to ban same-sex marriage and forbid the state to recognize any legal status between unmarried couples. That would include extending health insurance benefits to same-sex domestic partners.
Status unclear
Given that YSU offered the health care benefits before Issue 1's passage, it's unclear whether the extension will stand or be abolished by the amendment. Legal reviews already are under way.
Tessier is a professor of philosophy and religious studies at YSU, which would make McKibben eligible for the health insurance.
A former nurse who teaches English over the phone to South Koreans, McKibben has been on disability for about four years. She sometimes must use a wheelchair. Her monthly prescriptions cost her about $3,000, and she spends about $7,000 per year on doctor visits.
Can't cover the bills
McKibben is on Medicare, but it's not enough to cover her expenses, she said.
Last year, friends held a fund-raiser to help, but the money has been spent.
You shouldn't have to rely on friends' assistance with medical bills, Tessier said.
Things would be much improved if the YSU health insurance is provided for McKibben.
But that's a prospect that seems elusive, she said on a rainy morning after last week's election. She apologized for crying as she talked.
"I let myself hope, and I shouldn't have done it," she said. "It's been very emotional. To finally get what I needed and to have it snatched out from under me."
McKibben and Tessier stayed up through early Wednesday, watching the election news. Then they drove to Cleveland, where McKibben underwent a previously scheduled MRI, which will produce yet another bill that they can't afford.
'Strange and frightening'
Tessier said that with all the post-election talk of evangelicals and a conservative agenda, now is a "strange and frightening time" to live in America. "They want to drive us back into the closet. They want us to be gone," McKibben complained.
The women spoke about moving away. It's different in Canada, they said.
Although there's plenty of focus on marriage, Tessier and McKibben speak of commitment instead.
"What does a piece of paper mean?" Tessier said. "We've been a family all this time. We have the loyalty, the love, the support and the care."
They just wish that was enough to overcome the objections to their union represented by Issue 1's marriage prohibition and its benefits ban.
"How is denying a healthy relationship a good moral value?" Mc-Kibben asked.