I just took a full-time job at a company where I’ve been freelancing the past four years. Great benefits, and of course I don’t have to pay taxes on my health insurance – not on the premium I pay, not on the contribution the company makes.
However.
I would have to pay taxes on premiums for a domestic partner or same-sex spouse if I enrolled him. I’d also have to pay taxes on the contribution the company makes. Same for the kids of that partner/spouse. This isn’t my employer’s fault. It’s because the IRS doesn’t recognize same-sex spouses or domestic partners.
The practical effect? Not just greater health insurance costs for gay couples. No, more than that: It costs more for gay couples to insure their kids. In what world does banning same-sex marriage count as a pro-family policy?
This is where we get into the difference between ignorance and hate. I bet if you asked most people whether kids of gay parents should pay more for health care, you’d get a solid NO. Even from people who oppose marriage equality (most of them, anyway). How is that possible? Because most people don’t understand the full impact of banning same-sex marriage.
But then you find people like Alabama state representative DuWayne Bridges. DuWayne wants to eliminate domestic partner benefits at the University of Alabama Birmingham. He says:
I don’t think the university should waste money by making a liberal or politically correct statement…This is a misuse of taxpayer dollars.
Never mind that he’s okay with giving benefits to opposite-sex spouses. Never mind that gays and lesbians pay taxes. Never mind that our kids need health care, too. He thinks that coverage for our loved ones is a waste.
This isn’t ignorance. The man sees gays and lesbians getting the same health care as their straight counterparts, and he calls up a fight to stop it.
If that’s not hate, what is?
I do wonder, when I’m presented with situations like this, whether people TRULY believe that they’re in their right mind. My belief in the benevolence of the Universe tells me that people are essentially good, and that the people who perpetuate these kinds of injustices really don’t see them as injustice at all – then I look a little more closely and realize that yes, indeed, they know full well that they’re denying rights to OTHER HUMAN BEINGS, but that’s okay because, well, those other human beings are misbehaving in some dire way and, therefore, don’t DESERVE the rights in question.
It all makes me very, very sad and white-hot pissed off…
Congratulations on the job! And thank you for your continued writing and video productions, so often you can articulate what needs to be said much more eloquently than I could ever wish I could.