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November 15, 2006

Same sex blues

At work, I deal with American open-enrollment insurance benefits. Today I received a call from a gay man and another from a lesbian. They were trying to make sure that they get benefits for their same-sex partners. Everyone else can simply go online and sign up their husbands and wives, or they can call me and I can do it for them. But not two people I just mentioned. They have to go to their HR person, get a special form, fax it in to some clandestine internal committee, and then hope (after some period of time that they do no have because open enrollment is only a couple of weeks, three at best) that they get approved. Out of more than 10 or 20 thousand employees, only 25 have been approved for same-sex benefits.

This is a company by company thing. Apparently at other major companies, getting same-sex benefits is simple. You know who else has problems? Unmarried couples. They can't get joint benefits at all unless they get married. So you have the people that want to get married but can't having a hard time getting insured, and you have the people that don't want to get married but can, having a hard time getting insured.

If we can accept single parenthood (a "broken family") as normal, why is it so hard to allow unmarried people (an "incomplete" home, but with two permanent adults instead of one) to have hassle-free benefits? If we can accept gay people has having legitimate relationships, why is it so hard to give gay people hassle-free insurance, ESPECIALLY when there is no real logistical impediment other than software? What's the big deal? If you say one thing, the other seems to follow logically as I see it.

Posted by JonasParker at November 15, 2006 3:10 PM

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