Sue Kerr who blogs at Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents has begun a petition at moveon.org because Allegheny County has announced that they will terminate all same-sex domestic partnerships by the end of July and any employee currently receiving benefits under a DP, will have to get married to maintain those benefits. A link to her petition is below, so if you agree, please take the time to sign it.

Sue raises an excellent point in the petition about the hardship placed on those employees where one partner works in the County, but the other partner works outside of Allegheny County, where there is no protections from discrimination based on sexual orientation. A couple in this situation may not wish to seek a marriage license, which is a public document as it may “out” the partner who could then be fired. This is a valid point, created because Pennsylvania is in an unusual position by having Marriage Equality, but failing to have state-wide protections in emolument, housing, and public accommodations.

For the record, I support her effort, and I’ll explain why. If you read the comments of people signing the petition, you may cringe as person after person calls this move “discrimination” or says utter bull shit like “Everyone deserves to have the wedding they WANT. Don’t take away the significance of the ruling by forcing them all to city hall.” Yes, that is the craziest crock of shit, I’ve read in a while. There is no “right to have the wedding they want.” Really. But no matter what the reasons given, the petition  deserves your support.

Domestic Partnership benefits were crafted as a way for an entity like an employer or governmental agency to provide some level of equality to same-sex couples who were disadvantaged compared to opposite sex couples since they couldn’t legally marry. I can’t speak for the specifics of the County’s situation, but in most cases, even DP benefits were not equal to marriage benefits, but it was a step in the right direction. DP benefits grew in importance when a person’s only reasonable access to affordable health care came through employment/groups coverage.

It makes sense that entities would do away with DP’s now that marriage is legal in Pennsylvania. In some regards, to keep DP benefits on the books to accommodate gay couples creates a level of special rights, which is counter to the whole idea of equality. But this isn’t just a theoretical idea. There are real people and real couples being affected, and the County’s urgency and timing is problematic.  A more thoughtful and employee-centric approach would be to set a longer transitional timeline. Or to treat cases on a case by case basis. In one regard, at this point it isn’t about providing benefits and making things more equal, but  a matter of taking benefits away. Is that really good business? Truly, the unexpected timing of the marriage legality surprised everyone. By all logical thinking, Pennsylvania would be in a holding pattern as the case was expected to be appealed. One would think that a business would want to assist employees at a transition rather than so abruptly bringing DP’s to an end.

There are a few major hurdles and arguments that may be hard to overcome with this petition:

• No employer is required to provide benefits to spouses or partners. That’s why they are called benefits.
• Under the Affordable Care Act, individuals who lose these benefits because they cannot marry, are eligible for inexpensive coverage that was never available before. So, a couple may lose this benefit by not marrying, but that doesn’t have to leave the person without affordable health care coverage.

County Executive Rich Fitzgerald campaigned on bringing the DP benefits to fruition after his predecessor didn’t have the political will to finalize it even though he had promised it and begun the process. It is surprising Fitzgerald would allow such a short-sighted decision. I guess the “queer” vote has no meaning anymore?

If you thought I was being an ass earlier claiming there was no right to a wedding, let me redeem myself. There is no “right” to a wedding of one’s desire, but it also isn’t fair nor reasonable for same-sex couples to have to rush a wedding simply to meet the County’s arbitrary and forced timing. Marriage is about more than partner benefits, and no couple deserves to be bullied into a rushed wedding. The County chose to offer the domestic partnerships without any threat to pull that rug out from underneath at a moment’s notice. For the County to do this is not discrimination, but it is downright cruel.

http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/dont-take-away-domestic