MADISON, Wis. -- A gay rights group said that Biddy Martin would be the first openly gay person to lead a university as large as the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Candace Gingrich, of the Human Rights Campaign, said that about eight gay people have become university presidents and chancellors in recent years, but mostly at small schools.

She said that the nomination of Martin to lead UW-Madison is a milestone and reflects the increasing number of openly gay professors and administrators in higher education.

Amit Taneja, of the Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals, said that Martin will be a trailblazer just like the other gay college leaders.

He said that she will show sexual orientation has little to do with her ability to do the job.

In a phone conference on Wednesday afternoon, Martin, who got her doctorate in Madison, said she previously turned down a professorship here in part because the UW didn't offer benefits for domestic partners.

"I was once offered a senior position at UW," she said. "Because of personal circumstances that arose in the course of the decision-making, but not primarily because of domestic-partner benefits, though I want to emphasize again how important it is for the university to have those benefits."

On Thursday, David Giroux, a UW spokesman, said that UW System misstated the reason Martin turned down the previous faculty job on their Web site. The site listed Martin among faculty and staff who have either left UW-Madison or rejected jobs there because of the lack of domestic partner benefits. The list has been used in a lobbying campaign to get lawmakers to extend health insurance benefits to partners of gay employees.

Giroux now said that Martin was once offered the position but turned it down for personal reasons that had nothing to do with domestic partner benefits.

The UW currently doesn't offer domestic partner benefits. Wisconsin is the only Big Ten school that doesn't have such benefits. Some proponents of the idea have long argued that doing so would help keep the university competitive in maintaining and recruiting qualified staff.

A Board of Regents committee recommended Martin for the chancellorship. The board is expected to consider her nomination and formally hire her in June.