Thursday, March 21, 2013

As the Opposition to Marriage Equality Approaches The Trash Heap of History – Republicans Will Need to Decide Whether or Not They are for Equality or For . . .

Corporate American is Coming On Board – For Business Reasons Of Course

The Republican Party is making news these days as the Party tries to make itself into something more acceptable than just the narrow group of right wing voters.  But possibly the biggest obstacle to greater acceptance of Republicans is their opposition to gay marriage.  The issue has turned on them with a fury, from being an electoral asset less than 10 years ago to be an electoral albatross today.

Another nail in the coffin of opposition to equality for gay and lesbian couples is the changing attitude of corporate America.  The crazy quilt of rules and regulation on gay marriage is making life more difficult for businesses than it has to be, and businesses are seeing which way the wind is blowing.

As the federal law which prohibits recognition of gay marriage heads for an oral hearing at the Supreme Court, some employers are signing up for equal rights.

on March 27th the case reaches the Supreme Court. Last week 278 employers, including Deutsche Bank and Microsoft, signed an “amicus” brief urging the nine justices to scrap the law.
The problem is that nine states (plus Washington, DC) allow gay marriage, and three others recognise gay unions solemnised elsewhere. This conflict between federal and state law creates all sorts of headaches, such as separate payroll systems and differing tax treatment of health-care benefits. “Even sophisticated employers struggle,” the brief says.

Ok, it would be nice if these companies supported equality on its own merits, but hey, let’s take what we can get.  As for Republicans, looks like their opposition to equality is the equivalent of swimming uphill (love to mix the metaphors)

A new ABC News/Washington Post poll found record high support — 58 percent — for gay marriage.

In a new survey released Monday, only 36 percent of those polled thought marriage for gay and lesbian couples should be illegal and 6 percent had no opinion.

Gay marriage has been one of the country’s fastest-shifting political issues of the decade. Just three years ago, the same poll found 47 percent of respondents favored legal gay marriage and 50 percent were against it.


which means the rest of us get to watch how the GOP squirms out of this one.



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