Longtime Baptist Employee Resigns Due to Lack of Benefits for Same-Sex Couples

Booth Iburg, Clinical Manager of Inpatient Rehab at Baptist’s Gulf Breeze Hospital, turned in her resignation on Wednesday, October 2 after almost 18 years with Baptist Health Care. Iburg said that she has appealed to executives for years to recognize her same sex marriage and allow her wife to join her insurance plan, and is no longer hopeful they will change their corporate policy without a state mandate.

Iburg stated that she has had repeated conversations with Baptist’s Human Resources department and has spoken publicly about the matter at the company’s annual benefits Open Enrollment meetings.

While same sex-marriages are not currently recognized in Florida, Baptist could change the language of its corporate diversity policy to add sexual orientation as a protected category and extend benefits to same-sex spouses as many corporations—Wal-Mart, among the most notable recent examples—have done.

Iburg, who spoke to the IN for the October 3 cover story “First Comes Love, Then Comes…: Local Love Stories Get to the Heart of the Marriage Equality Debate,” was legally married to her wife, Denise Williams, in Massachusetts in 2008.

“I had presented my marriage license. I would present my case every year at open enrollment. And actually before we even got legally married, I had presented my case, because Denise and I have been together now almost 24 years,” Iburg recounted, “When I got legally married I thought ‘Maybe it’ll carry more weight now,’ but it didn’t.”

Iburg—who is also an associate pastor at Holy Cross Metropolitan Community Church— said she had been pondering what to do for approximately two months after hearing there would be adjustments to existing benefit plans and policies this year, “I was cautiously optimistic when I heard there were going to be changes and some education—I thought maybe, just maybe…” But last Monday when the policy was rolled out without a change regarding same-sex couples, Iburg again questioned the policy and said she was again shut down.

“At that point I said, ‘I’ve got to do something’ and so I went and wrote the [resignation] letter,” Iburg said.

In her resignation letter, Iburg wrote, “Morally I can no longer work or have any allegiance towards a corporation that continues to blatantly discriminate against the gay and lesbian community in their benefits package…Financially, it has cost us an extra $32,000 in premiums to cover my spouse,” later concluding, “As a leader in the GBLT community and a pastor who preaches God’s all inclusive love and acceptance, I can no longer speak from both sides of my mouth.”

When speaking with the IN on Thursday, Iburg explained, “I’m not angry; I’m disappointed, I’m hurt—I’m hurt to the core. I was their first full-time physical therapist at Gulf Breeze Hospital in August of 1996.”

Iburg, 62, acknowledges that her age and professional experience afford her the luxury to take a stand.

“I’m not going to stand for being discriminated against any more through Baptist Health Care. I can’t do it. I can’t preach equality, I can’t stand for justice, I can’t do those things and continue to work and even recommend Baptist Health Care, which hurts me because I know we give the best healthcare in the area, but this has become my conviction.”

Currently, Iburg says several of her superiors, including the president of the hospital, have offered to appeal to Baptist’s Board of Directors to change the policy and keep her on staff. If the appeals are ignored, Iburg plans to work through the four week notice period required for her position and stated she looks forward to possibly splitting her time between work in home health care and ministry in the future.