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Alex Blaze: Anti-Gay Ballot Initiatives Hurt Straight People, Too
That is interesting. The same thing happened in Utah a few years back and it turned out that far, far more unmarried heterosexuals were hurt by the change than any gay people. I think they even lost some of their best employees out of the deal. The funny part was a lot of those unmarried people actually voted for the initiative because they thought it only applied to gays and it sounds like that might have happened here as well.
Anti-Gay Ballot Initiatives Hurt Straight People, Too
The only anti-gay ballot initiative that passed this week that I know of was in El Paso, Texas. Surprise surprise, it was poorly-worded and now everyone's getting benefits cut:
By a margin of 55 percent to 45 percent, voters passed an initiative saying, "The city of El Paso endorses traditional family values by making health benefits available only to city employees and their legal spouse and dependent children."
In response, the city attorney's office released a statement Wednesday saying there could be legal challenges, but the city will eliminate health coverage of:
* Gay and unmarried partners of city employees.
* Children such as foster kids who are not dependents under the federal tax code.
* Grandchildren of city employees.
* Retirees who are eligible for health coverage through another employer.
That is interesting. The same thing happened in Utah a few years back and it turned out that far, far more unmarried heterosexuals were hurt by the change than any gay people. I think they even lost some of their best employees out of the deal. The funny part was a lot of those unmarried people actually voted for the initiative because they thought it only applied to gays and it sounds like that might have happened here as well.