Gay employees could purchase health coverage for their same-sex partners through the university, if revisions to Georgetown’s health benefits policy currently under consideration by administrators are put into effect.

Spiros Dimolitsas, senior vice president and chief administrative officer, and Jane Genster, university counsel, submitted a proposal to the Benefits Advisory Committee Sept. 28 outlining policy changes that would expand health coverage eligibility to individuals who live with Georgetown faculty and staff and meet specific requirements.

As currently worded, the proposal would offer health care coverage to “legally domiciled adults,” University President John J. DeGioia said during a town hall meeting with faculty late last month, according to a copy of his prepared remarks.

To qualify as a member of this new category, individuals must be either a blood relative and a tax dependent, or a non-relative who has a “very close personal relationship” with a university employee, DeGioia said.

“The merit of this expansion is that it will empower employees to purchase health care for a loved one who doesn’t otherwise have access to group health care coverage,” he added.

If approved, the revisions would represent a major step forward for faculty efforts to equalize treatment of same-sex couples. University employees, particularly professors, have lobbied increasingly loudly in recent years for such a policy, which they say would remedy unfair disparities in the benefits afforded to employees based on their sexual orientation.

“This proposal reflects a desire to increase access to health care benefits to more members of the Georgetown community in keeping with our Catholic, Jesuit mission to care for the human needs of others,” university spokeswoman Julie Bataille said.

Bataille said that gays and lesbians could be covered under the proposal if they meet the criteria, although “the category is more expansive and [they] would not be the only eligible people to be covered.”

The BAC would play an advisory role, and that any recommendations issued would require approval from the President’s Executive Committee before taking effect, she added.

Economics Professor Douglas Brown, who sits on the BAC, said that DeGioia had presented the issue to the committee personally earlier this semester.

“A number of members of the committee were happy that he came in and gave us a pathway to start this process,” Brown said. “There’s been a lot of talk about it among faculty and staff in the last year or two.”

Brown also said that the committee would examine various points of view before reporting its findings. DeGioia had asked the BAC to report back by the end of the calendar year, Brown said.

“Certain people from different beliefs and faiths will say one thing and others will say another thing,” Brown said. “If someone was going to ask me to make a forecast . I think the coverage is going to be allowed for people who live together.”

Bill McCoy, assistant director of student organizations and LGBTQ community resources, said that he supported the effort to expand Georgetown’s health care coverage policies.

“I think the university’s moving in a positive direction,” he said. “If it will attract queer faculty to campus that otherwise wouldn’t have come, I think this is a positive direction for the university.”

Some Catholic leaders have argued strongly against an increasing trend among universities and businesses in recent years to expand benefits coverage to same-sex couples. Catholic doctrine forbids homosexual relationships and the Catholic Church has been one of the fiercest opponents of efforts to legalize gay marriage in the United States.

Tommaso Astarita, director of undergraduate studies at the History Department and co-founder of the group GU Gay and Lesbian Faculty, was one of the authors of the Faculty Senate resolution asking university administrators to consider health care benefits for same-sex couples. He said that Georgetown’s Catholic identity was compatible with an expanded benefits policy.

“I think it’s something that a lot of people have been wishing for and think it would be a good idea,” Astarita said, adding that certain Catholic universities, including the Dominican University of Calfiornia and the University of San Francisco, have already implemented similar policies. “It’s something people are becoming more aware of each year.”

Astarita also said that the new benefits, if enacted, would help the university vie for top gay faculty, who sometimes decide to work at other institutions because Georgetown will not offer benefits for their partners.

“There is an issue of competitiveness. It is a policy that is routinely offered at the top schools in the country,” he said. “There’s also a fairness issue . in terms of a benefit that some people are included in and some people are not.”

BAC Chair Elliott Crooke, a Medical Center professor, could not be reached for comment. Genster’s office referred inquiries to the university’s Office of Communications.