Filed by: Alex Blaze
June 3, 2010 1:00 PM
Some progress:
The same-sex partners of gay and lesbian federal workers can start applying next month for long-term health-care insurance, the Office of Personnel Management said Tuesday.
That's great, because long-term health insurance can be incredibly expensive. The more people who have quality long-term health insurance, the better.
Of course, there'll be some who say this isn't enough, and it isn't. Regular health care benefits aren't extended here, although the bill to extend those to same-sex partners has already made it through committee and is expected to make it to the floor of the Senate this month (we'll see, of course).
What's been surprising is the number of queer commentators saying how this only affects a small number of people, as if that's ever been a reason for the LGBT community not to advocate for something. Marriage only affects those LGB people in long-term relationships who choose to participate in the institution, which isn't most of us. DADT only affects those of us in the military or who plan on enlisting if it gets repealed, which really doesn't account for the swaths of people who'll never enlist discussing DADT.
Nothing's stopped us before from celebrating progress that benefits only a sector of the community, and federal workers are great people to celebrate.
Continue reading "Some benefits extended to federal employees" »
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