"Gays are pleading for employee benefit rights to health insurance for their partners. "
Yeah, and many big employers already provide that ... meanwhile those same employers are cutting jobs, outsourcing, and giving other folks less than they got before in other ways. I know. Been there, seen it.
It does make sense to cut benefits if you are a smaller business and would have to provide it for homosexuals. Just like the increased costs of smokers drove that one business to restrict hiring them. It is only logical that a lifestyle choice that leads to a life expectancy of fourty with a prolonged and horribly slooooooow death would removed from the cost of insurance where possible.
You think "cutting jobs, outsourcing, and giving other folks less than they got before' is because of large companies giving gay employees partner benefits?
---
No, but all of above happened at my employer, and you miss my point.
Your phrase "employee benefit rights" is nothing but a big joke to 20-year employees who found out their pension is not what they planned it to be, where GE/Enron-style RPA are installed to get rid of 'overpaid' workers who built up tidy salaries based on loyalty and seniority. I say it because I've seen it first hand; not me but people I know.
If Gays are pleading from "rights" from employers, they are pleading for something that NOBODY ELSE HAS. There are no "employee benefit rights" except the right to leave your job if you dont like what your employer is handing out.