A Stitch in Haste

A victory for gay rights, common sense, and plain language judicial interpretation:

United Parcel Service has decided to provide benefits to the same-sex civil union partners of its employees in New Jersey.
...
In May of this year, Gabriael "Nickie" Brazier, who is a driver for UPS who requested to have her civil union spouse, Heather Aurand, added to UPS's benefit plan so that the couple would not have to continue paying for a second, inferior, health insurance plan for Heather and could stop paying down a second yearly deductible. UPS responded with a letter outlining why it was denying spousal benefits to Brazier and Aurand, saying, "In summary, you cannot add Ms. Aurand as a spouse because New Jersey law does not treat civil unions the same as marriages, and the Plan requires a dependent spouse to be a spouse as defined under applicable state law."

The only indignation left to be hurled is for UPS' labor unions, particular the Teamsters, which should have promptly quashed UPS' absurd assertion that its collective bargaining agreements forbade offering the insurance (i.e., that unions would, somehow, oppose giving more employees more benefits). It was so preposterous as to be laughable. But the unions, to the best of my knowledge, stayed deafeningly silent on the controversy. Shame on them.

Meanwhile, anecdotes such as this will continue to accumulate throughout New Jersey, to the point where the either the legislature or the courts will have no choice to admit that the only way to achieve true marriage equality is to establish true marriage equality. Separate but equal is impossible.

Bravo, yet again, to the heroes of Lambda Legal.