» The nitty-gritty: The bill was co-sponsored by 23 senators, including one Republican (Susan Collins of Maine). It passed the committee easily, via a bipartisan voice vote, and is actually rather narrow in scope: It only provides benefits for unmarried, same-sex domestic partners of federal workers. Married same-sex couples—and unmarried opposite-sex couples—are not included. The range of benefits provided, though, is pretty huge: medical, long-term care, disability, life insurance, workers’ comp, retirement, and more.
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I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women, and heterosexual men and women marrying another are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties. And quite frankly, I don’t see much of a distinction beyond that.Vice President Joe Biden •
My baseline is a strong civil union that provides them the protections and the legal rights that married couples have. And I think that’s the right thing to do. But I recognize that from their perspective it is not enough, and I think (it) is something that we’re going to continue to debate, and I personally am going to continue to wrestle with going forward.President Barack Obama, in a December news conference • Discussing his “evolving” views on gay marriage. Tonight, Obama will host a gala as a fundraiser for his campaign — the first of its kind for gay donors. With the gay marriage bill in New York being hanging over his head, this gala will really put his “evolving” view on the issue to the test. Lots of people are criticizing Obama for his stance on gay marriage — especially his progressive base. It’s also worth noting that Obama supported gay marriage back in 1996. It’ll be interesting to see how this gala pans out tonight, because this will come up. source (via • follow)
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