Same-sex couples living in all 105 Kansas counties can now get married, but there are still roadblocks in state government for some services. As KPR’s Stephen Koranda reports, LGBT advocates are calling for the state government to update the rules following last week’s Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage.
Same-sex couples can get married, but if one of them is a Kansas state employee, the other can’t yet join on the state health insurance plan. Tom Witt, with the group Equality Kansas, says that’s just one example of the needed changes.
“The easiest thing in the world to do is to stop separating gay and lesbian couples out from everybody else. If you’re married, you’re married,” Witt says.
Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration says they are studying the ruling and its impact on Kansas law.
Kansas Department of Health and Environment spokesperson Sara Belfry says they handle a lot of services and it takes time to change something like state employee health insurance rules.
“We’re really just looking at what policy changes we need to make at this point in time and trying to analyze the ruling and figure out what exactly needs to be changed,” Belfry says.
Witt says if changes aren’t made soon, Equality Kansas could bring legal action.
