Not that this is any surprise but Michigan Republicans are poised to make sure that schools, counties, cities and the state itself do not offer domestic partner benefits to their employees.
Michigan cities, counties, schools, universities and the state itself would be prohibited from offering domestic partner benefits to the live-in companions of their employees under legislation narrowly approved by the state House on Thursday.The measure would bar the employers from including domestic partner benefits as a subject of collective bargaining after the expiration of current contracts.
The legislation is largely aimed at ending the practice of extending benefits to a public employee’s domestic partner. Many Michigan public employers implemented the domestic partner policies allowing benefits to be extended to unmarried employee partners of either sex after the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that same-sex partner benefits violated the one man, one woman marriage amendment approved by voters in 2004.
~SNIP~
“It is not the responsibility of taxpayers to support the roommates and unmarried partners of public employees,” said state Rep. Dave Agema, R-Grandville, chief sponsor of the legislation.
It’s obviously nothing more than a blatant effort to make sure same-sex partners are never afforded the same benefits their “different-sex” counterparts enjoy.
Gotta give ’em credit. By the time this current crop of Republicans is done, they will have rolled back nearly every single progressive gain on the books. They may not get reelected but they will have accomplished everything they set out to do. In that regard, they make Democrats look like rank amateurs.
