Same-Sex Partners Get Rescuers’ Death Benefit

President Bush has signed a bill allowing death benefits to be paid to domestic partners of firefighters and police officers who die in the line of duty, permanently extending a federal death benefit to same-sex couples for the first time.

The bill allows a $250,000 federal benefit for public safety officers’ survivors to be paid to any beneficiary listed on the victim’s life insurance policy. The money is now available only to spouses, children and parents.

Gay activists had lobbied for the bill and the Justice Department had objected to it, saying in a letter to Congress that the benefit had been designed for immediate survivors with pressing needs and that the bill was “likely to create unintended and unfortunate results.”