GayandRight

My name is Fred and I am a gay conservative living in Ottawa. This blog supports limited government, the right of the State of Israel to live in peace and security, and tries to expose the threat to us all from cultural relativism, post-modernism, and radical Islam. I am also the founder of the Free Thinking Film Society in Ottawa (www.freethinkingfilms.com)

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Another reason to support gay marriage...

Opponents of gay marriage claim they support civil unions...yet look at what has happened in Michigan.
A Michigan appeals court ruling that bans public universities and state and local governments from providing health insurance to partners of gay employees has alarmed gay rights advocates nationwide.

They fear the decision could encourage similar rulings in 17 other states whose bans on gay marriage could be interpreted to prohibit domestic partner benefits for same-sex couples.

Michigan last week became the first state to rule that public employers cannot offer health benefits if the benefits are based on treating same-sex relationships similar to marriage.

''It really is just a matter of time before we start seeing wholesale litigation in this area,'' said Carrie Evans, state legislative director for the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group in Washington.

In Alaska, the only other state to rule on the benefits given to same-sex partners of public employees, the courts ruled the other way, saying it was unconstitutional to deny them.

More than 20 other states have yet to decide how their gay marriage bans apply to same-sex partner benefits.

Dennis Patrick, a professor at Eastern Michigan University, worries that Michigan's ruling will strip his partner's health insurance.

The couple have adopted four foster children, one with a developmental disability, and Tom Patrick works part-time so he can care for them.

"If he has to go back to work full-time, that hurts our family. Or we have to pay for health benefits out of pocket, which hurts our family," Dennis Patrick said. "To me that either demonstrates a lack of understanding of how this can affect our family or other families, or it's just mean and cruel."
Fortunately, we don't have to worry about this in Canada!

6 Comments:

Blogger Lemon said...

Fred- The train has left the station here. What's the status in other western nations? UK, France, Germany, etc.?

10:04 PM  
Blogger Bleatmop said...

Yes, that is a sad side effect of the anti-gay marriage laws in those states. I agree, I'm glad this won't happen in Canada.

10:34 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Fred you are a typical me me me gay rights advocate.

The gay rights crowd long ago became just another special interest group, and each article I read serves to confirm that.

It's no longer about "what can I do for my government" with the gay rights crowd, it's only about "what can my government do for me".

I've got no problem at all with gays, but what I can't stand is someone masquerading as a conservative.

11:38 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That should have been "what can I do for my country"...

Oh well, shows how annoyed I am by all the whining.

11:40 PM  
Blogger Suricou Raven said...

In the UK, we have civil unions - they are identical to marriage in all ways, except for being exampt from a few arcaic common-law things.

This is different from the civil unions proposed in the US, which provide only very limited recognition - strictly state level, no relivence to federal taxes, limited inheritence, and completly meaningless when outside the state. So cant, say, book a holiday as a married couple.

8:10 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That's nice odie441, but what does your comment have to do with the subject of same-sex marriage?

11:35 PM  

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