Suit Over Death Benefits Asks, What Is a Family?
by Tamar Lewin In what is apparently the first Federal lawsuit of its kind, the surviving lesbian partner of a deceased AT&T employee has charged the company with discrimination for refusing to pay her the same death benefits it would have paid to a husband. Sandra Rovira, who filed the suit, says her life with Marjorie Forlini, an AT&T manager who died of cancer two years ago, was as much a marriage as any heterosexual union. The woman had even formalized their relationship in a 1977 ceremony for relatives and friends, and they exchanged rings and vows. “Margie and I bought a house together and raised my kids together, and when she was sick I washed her, I went to the doctors with her, I prayed with her,” said Ms. Rovira, 42 years old who was married before she met Ms. Forlini. “She died in my arms. But when I called AT&T, they treated me as if I was nothing and our whole relationship was nothing. It was so humiliating. We were a family like any other family, and we deserved to be tre
