Retired Pittsburgh police officer sues city, alleging reverse discrimination

A retired Pittsburgh police officer has sued the city of Pittsburgh on reverse discrimination grounds, saying the city has denied benefits for his girlfriend while providing them to partners in same-sex relationships.

Richard Nicholas, an officer from 1994 until his retirement in 2015, said the city has refused to grant health care benefits to his domestic partner, Kim Koller, because they are not gay.

The complaint, filed in U. S. District Court this week, says the city has a pattern of discriminating against heterosexual couples while granting benefits to same-sex partners, citing an example involving a retired female officer and her female partner.

The suit says that under city policy, domestic partners of employees and retired employees get the same benefits as spouses.

Mr. Nicholas and Ms. Koller have been together for 25 years. In 2014, he told the city’s human resources department about their relationship, but he was told she wouldn’t get the benefits because they are not same-sex partners, according to the suit.

Every year since then, Mr. Nicholas said, he’s requested the benefits and been denied.

In January 2020, he received a letter from the human resources department saying the benefits would be denied because the couple are no longer city residents. They live in Florida.

The suit says that explanation is “pretextual and unworthy of belief.”

Mr. Nicholas said the city provides benefits to the samesex partner of a retired female officer who, like him, lives outside of Pennsylvania.

“There is no rational basis for this difference in treatment,” the suit says.

Mr. Nicholas said the city is discriminating against him because of his sexual orientation.

The suit is seeking compensatory and punitive damages and other benefits lost due to the city’s conduct, plus interest from the date of discrimination.