More Big Companies Offering Benefits To Gay Couples

The latest indicator of the gay community's growing economic clout came in a recent report that found more than half of the United States' largest corporations now extend health insurance to employees' same-sex domestic partners.
The Washington-based Human Rights Campaign Foundation said the number of Fortune 500 companies offering this benefit has doubled in six years, even as voters in 45 states have registered their opposition to gay marriage.
Moreover, the report found that large companies have more readily granted benefits to their workers' same-sex partners than have state and local governments. More than 250 companies are offering that benefit this year.
"They are light-years ahead because corporate leaders are making these decisions purely on a business model,'' said Joe Solmonese, the foundation's president. ``Looking at the buying power of the lesbian and gay communities and the need to attract a diverse and talented workforce, they've concluded that a fair and inclusive workforce serves them best.''
The tally of cities, counties and other government organizations providing health benefits to same-sex partners rose to 201 this year, up from 113 in 2000. Eight states grant some legal rights, including access to insurance benefits, to same-sex couples.
The report, the group's seventh annual survey, also found that 86 percent of Fortune 500 companies now bar discrimination based on sexual orientation. And companies reported the domestic partner benefit added ``less 1 percent to their total benefits costs.'' Some conservative groups oppose the extension of health benefits to same-sex partners.
Steve Crampton, chief counsel for the American Family Association's Center for Law and Policy, called the benefits ``a bad trend for America, encouraging dangerous and demonstrably destructive behavior.''
Nationwide Mutual Insurance doesn't see it that way. Since 1999, the Columbus, Ohio, company has offered its 35,000 employees benefits for same-sex partners, as well as for aging parents, adult children and roommates.
"As the traditional household has changed, we decided to let our associates define family,'' representative Eric Hardgrove said.
from Mercury News