A Reuters dispatch from New York, May 18, 1998:

A Bell Atlantic cable technician filed suit against his employer Monday, charging that the company's refusal to grant his live-in girlfriend medical and other benefits constitutes sex discrimination.

Turning sex discrimination case law on its head, the employee, Paul Foray, charged in Manhattan Federal Court that Bell Atlantic Corp.'s refusal to allow his girlfriend to sign on to his medical plan discriminated against him solely on the basis of his sex.

Noting that the company allows employees' same-sex domestic partners to receive medical benefits, he said that if he was a woman, his partner could receive them.

In the filing, Foray said the company was essentially compelling him to get married, "thereby imposing burdens such as the need for health tests, the need for a marriage ceremony, potential lifetime obligations of support for the partner and the need for a divorce proceeding to terminate the relationship."

He is seeking what he calculates to be lost back and future benefits of $62,000, and $300,000 in punitive damages. Neither Foray, his partner nor his attorneys could be reached.

A spokesman for Bell Atlantic said the suit was without merit and that Foray had filed and then withdrawn a similar suit in state court.

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