(R)'s are horrible people - Michigan Lawmakers Want to Stop Employers From Giving Partner Benefits

[WillParkinson]

Michigan Lawmakers Want to Stop Employers From Giving Partner Benefits


Michigan could soon become one of the least welcoming to same-sex couples if a pair of bills, which were approved by a House committee on Tuesday, make their way into state law books.

Republicans on the Oversight, Reform and Ethics Committee voted to bar employers from giving benefits to anyone not married or related to an employee. Although the rules don’t say “gay” anywhere in them, it’s clear who they target, according to Equality Michigan.

“While these benefits are often used by both straight and gay couples, anti-gay lawmakers are specifically trying to deny gay couples the ability to care for their families,” said Emily Dievendorf, director of policy for the group, in a statement.

Republicans also voted to make it illegal for any union to negotiate on benefits for unmarried couples. The committee’s four Republicans easily outvoted the two Democrats – Reps. Timothy Bledsoe and Lisa Brown.

http://advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2011/06/22/Michigan_Lawmakers_Want_to_Stop_Employers_From_Giving_Partner_Benefits/

[RKP5637]

1. "If" there is a hell, it's going to be overcrowded with republicans. They might as

well move the RNC to hell.

[One_Life_To_Give]

2. WTF This is just plain Mean Spirited.

WTF This is just plain Mean Spirited.

Not to mention that the Multinationals like Ford, GM etc. all learned long ago it's better to have a really good GLBT employee than a Homophobe that can't engineer his way out of a box.

[AldebTX]

3. I Would Love To Hear The Explanation For This

Every time Dems pass regulations on business it's derided as interfering with business.....

How do the Repugs spin it to explain THEIR intervention with businesses that have made their OWN decisions on whom to offer benefits?

[MidwestTransplant]

4. I guess Republicans are for keeping the government out of private business except when they

don't want it to be.

[n2doc]

6. +1 n/t

[RKP5637]

5. The republicans love to torture people! Labeled the sociopaths of politics suits them well. n/t

[RetiredTrotskyite]

7. Unbelievable? Not Really...

considering this is Michigan. This mean-spirited shit is what the Republicans and religious fundies thrive on. It's very like the bullshit going on in New York State. They want the legally established "right" to be able to discriminate against GLBT people. Not only in their hater churches which is constitutionally-guaranteed, but also in things such as catering, and other services. Why the FUCK is this being allowed in the United States of America? Is any other group discriminated against in this way? Why the hell is this being allowed?!

I left the hellhole called Michigan years ago and I have told my husband I have no intentions of going back. When he goes to take his karate qualifiers, I am staying on the Canadian side of the river, even though I don't live there. I will go to Canada to avoid being in Michigan. I am tired of this crap being perpetrated on us--if ANY other group was subjected to this kind of discrimination, there would be a civil war going on in this country, but because it is GLBT, it is apparently fine and dandy.

Sorry for the rant, guys. I have been following events in New York State and now this...I just went ballstic. And Xtians wonder why so many GLBT people have had it with them and their BS>

[Crowman1979]

8. Can someone please glitter bomb Rick "The Prick" Snyder?

[Kurovski]

9. Some of them are more horrible than others...

especially the ones who claim God as their power-broker in advocating killing gay people in other parts of the world:


http://www.lgbtpov.com/2011/05/uganda-kill-the-gays-bill-and-the-christian-right-connection/


Uganda ‘Kill the Gays’ Bill and the Christian Right Connection

...What does seem clear is that the antigay sentiment, if not the bill itself, is sanctioned by the Ugandan government – as illustrated in the photo of how protesters were treated by police. The photo is reminiscent of the police water-hosing of civil rights protesters demanding an end to wanton lynching and Jim Crow laws in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s. Not as visible at the time was the clash of Christianity, with protesters inspired by Christian values espoused by young leaders such as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. standing up to the murderous Ku Klux Klan driven by their mission to create a “White Christian America.” In a European context, one might think of the Ethnic Cleansing that lead to genocide in the former Yugoslavia in the mid-1990s. It is interesting to note that as late as Nov. 2009, murderer Radovan Karadzic was apparently “sorry for not exterminating all Muslims in Srebrenica.”

It may be useful for the State Department to start considering this extreme hatred for LGBT people to be akin to the religious-based hatred that inspired violent racism in the US and the impulse to ethnic cleansing in other parts of the world. And they might also want to start by looking at some of their own friends – such as Pastor Rick Warren, who delivered the Invocation at President Obama’s Inauguration...