07.10.07
UPS denies health care coverage to N.J.’s civil union couples
United Parcel Service has denied health care coverage to civil union partners in New Jersey, according to Newark’s local newspaper The Star-Ledger. Although the company offers equal benefits to married couples in Massachusetts, whether straight or gay, it denies coverage to partners in New Jersey civil unions because state law does not call them “spouses.”
“This is a problem the legislature created,” Steven Goldstein, chairman of the New Jersey gay rights group Garden State Equality, told The Star-Ledger. “Civil unions are never in our lifetime going to be respected by employers like marriage.”
But many companies, including UPS, offer benefit plans governed by federal law, which recognizes marriage only as a union between a man and a woman. These companies have the option to deny benefits to partners in other relationships.
Many state activists are calling for a resolution. “We’ve heard from many legislators that this is something they want to deal with in 2008,” Goldstein told The Star-Ledger. “They know it’s a disaster. In the real world, civil unions are to marriage what artificial sweetener is to sugar. It’s not the same thing, and it leaves a bad aftertaste.”