In a wonderful, disturbing, half-assed, ludicrous, delightful development, the University of Syracuse is going to pay $1,000 to gay and lesbian employees who get health insurance for their partners through the university’s domestic partner program. This is meant to help rectify the federal tax burden imposed on domestic partners, a burden that opposite-sex married couples don’t face.
- Wonderful: it’s an attempt to rectify an injustice.
- Disturbing: it does feel a lot like a special right (of which I want none).
- Ludicrous: it’s a such an ungainly, inelegant, inexact solution to a ridiculous problem.
- Half-assed: it still won’t make up for the federal tax burden.
- Delightful: thank God the entire country isn’t Virginia.
Sadly, as much as this move will outrage conservatives, it’s probably not enough, especially since the bonus will itself be taxed. As you may recall, I calculated the federal tax impact of adding my partner to my employer’s health insurance and found I’d pay $1849.56 more in federal taxes than if I were straight-married.
That’s take-home pay. I figured out that it’s equivalent to a $3500 salary cut ($3500 is what I have to make to compensate for the lost $1849.56 in take-home pay).
A $3500 salary cut.
So here’s the really sad take-away:
Even when we get special rights, we’re still not brought up to equality.
How would you like to pay over $400 a month for your partner’s health insurance like us?? My partner is self employed. If we were married he could just go on my plan at work for an extra $25. My straight married friends do this. I have a friend at work who is on marriage number three (since my partner and I have been together-19 years.) She is on our work plan along with her new hubby, her kids and his kids from a previous marriage!!! Fair?
I have health insurance through my partner’s employer, which estimates its value at around $13,000 annually (which $$ we can’t question), on which he has to pay federal income tax. Insuring one’s (heterosexual) spouse and kids doesn’t get taxed, does it?
I don’t want special rights, I don’t need special money, I just want equality regardless of sex and sexual orientation. If a woman has the right to marry the man of her choice, why can’t I. I can marry the woman of my choice, but my choice is a man. Health insurance is just another insurance rip off. I am all for insurance, but the exclusions are the key. I learned a long time ago that the devil’s in the details.
For instance, spearate but equal was not good enought for Blacks, so why should we settle for it. I don’t care if I ride in the front of the bus or in the back. What I resent is people telling me where I have to ride. I will pick my seat from what is available like everybody else.
The world is not equal, I don’t always expect to be treated equally. However, I have a right and an expectation that under the law I will be treated equally. If we removed the word marriage from the vocabulary of the law and inserted the word partner (regardless of sex) then all this fight over same sex marriage would end. Eliminate marriage and there is only Civil committment. Let churches marry people and all the benefits from law flow to civil partners. Then any church that wants to perform marriage could do so. Right now churches can not legally perform religious marriages that are not also valid civil ceremonies and valid civil marriages. This is because the state requires that people licensed to perform civil marriage promise not to perform religioun marriages that are not also valid legal civil marriages. Sound like an intrusion into religion. I wonder why churches are not up in arms about that. This applies to health care because it is just one tip of the same iceberg.