Thaindian News

By Gina Gomez
Madison, Wisconsin, Aug 9, (THAINDIAN NEWS) The Milwaukee teacher’s union has urged a judge to give instructions to the school board so that it includes Viagra and other erectile dysfunction treating drugs in its health insurance plan. According to reports, a lawsuit has been filed by the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association in this regard claiming that the exclusion of Pfizer Inc.’s erectile dysfunction drug and other similar pills amounts to sexual discrimination against the male employees of the school.

The lawsuit that has been filed is the latest step in the legal campaign that has been undertaken by the teacher’s union for a period of two years as it claims that the decision of the school board to keep the erectile dysfunction drugs out of the health insurance plans discriminates against the male employees of the institution. During its two-year long fight, the Milwaukee teachers union has emphasized that drugs such as Viagra, Levitra, Cialis and a number of other drugs play a pivotal role in treating “an exclusively gender-related condition.” The Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association had filed an equal rights complaint in the year 2008 but on September last year, a judge had overruled an earlier ruling that supported the union. The decision against the complaint filed by the teachers union was also upheld by the state’s Labor and Industry Review Commission in June this year.

Meanwhile, the attorneys of the school board have contended that the main reason which led to the exclusion of the drug was to save money while it has also been pointed out that the question of any kind of discrimination does not arise in the first place as the drugs are not used for any medical reasons but for recreational sex.