Green Bay joins fight against benefits for gay partners

The city of Green Bay and seven other local bodies will fight a lawsuit seeking health benefits for partners of gay state employees, saying they will be forced to provide similar perks if the lawsuit succeeds.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit in April on behalf of six state workers, claiming state government’s refusal to provide health insurance to their gay partners violates the equal protection clause of the Wisconsin constitution.

Earl Van Den Heuvel (pictured left), a member of the Green Bay City Council, which voted Tuesday night to fight the lawsuit, said the case could force all Wisconsin cities to provide benefits to partners of gay employees and open up a floodgate of lawsuits from others seeking benefits.

“As a government, we just can’t afford it,”, he said. “The biggest cost our city has is health benefits.” (source)

Well, that argument really doesn’t hold water does it? If the city of Green Bay is looking to save money by denying health benefits, it should start with all married couples - no benefits for anyone who is not a direct employee of the city. That means no spouses. Think of all the money they would save!

That is what would be fair, and if they did it universally, no one (gay or straight) would be able to complain or file a lawsuit against them. But this has nothing to do with fairness, does it?