Ever since New Jersey adopted civil unions for same-sex couples earlier this year – after lawmakers in both parties had balked at allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry – stories have cropped periodically that demonstrate the inherent "unequalness" of the civil unions. This week, yet another report emerged.
It seems that United Parcel Service, you know, the company with the weird slogan "What can brown do for you?", is refusing to provide benefits to same-sex couples in New Jersey because state law does not call them "spouses." UPS does provide such benefits to married same-sex couples in Massachusetts.
Of course, as Steven Goldstein, chair of Garden State Equality, told the Star-Ledger, "This is a problem the legislature created." And indeed, the issue brings to the fore the main reason same-sex couples and other advocates believe nothing short of marriage will be equal.
Civil unions aren't equal.
Is UPS doing a little parsing? We think so, and the company should be called on the carpet for being so self-serving in its reasoning. It certainly is not the fault of New Jersey same-sex couples that they can't get married. A lot of heterosexual lawmakers in the state wouldn't hear of such a thing when they were hashing out our rights and doing anything they could to avoid using the word "marriage." The company obviously knows that civil unions are the closest thing to marriage available to same-sex couples in the Garden State. So why split hairs?
Earlier this spring, the New York Times published a lengthy article on the New Jersey civil unions with the headline "Equality Elusive Under New Jersey Civil Union Law." It mentioned UPS and its policies, but the article also discussed the case of a lesbian who was told that she was likely to be denied coverage for a mammogram after she added her partner to her insurance. "The insurance company changed the employee's designation to male since there was no spot on its forms for 'civil union spouse,'" the paper reported.
UPS, a Fortune 500 company, scored 80 on last year's Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index. Interestingly, the CEI scoring was changed last year to include the loss of points (15) if a company engages in action that would undermine the goal of LGBT equality. We think UPS' excuse in the civil unions versus marriage spat certainly qualifies for a subtraction this year.
Thanks, HRC
Three months after we called on the Human Rights Campaign to put together a televised presidential debate focusing solely on LGBT issues, it happened. The HRC Foundation and Logo announced this week that the top three Democratic candidates have confirmed to appear at a forum, scheduled for August 9 in Los Angeles. We expect more candidates will participate in what should be an enlightening affair.
So thank you, HRC – we know we don't say that often – for putting the forum together. History will indeed be made, as the candidates will address a live LGBT television audience. While apparently the candidates won't appear on stage together, at least voters will hear their views on gay issues in front of gay voters.