The Milwaukee County Board will hold a vote today to either authorize or kill a study to look into the possibility of providing benefits for domestic partners of Milwaukee County employees.
True to form, my County Supervisor Lynne DeBruin decided to flip flop on the issue and voted against recommending to move forward with the study on Tuesday after originally supporting it. It’s frustrating to be represented by someone who folds under the pressure of a few special interest phone calls instead of doing the right thing for Milwaukee families. If the vote today is to kill the study, there will be a single person to blame for it, and that’s Sup. DeBruin. While some conservatives will praise her for the decision, she’ll lose a lot of support from those on the other side who see this issue as just another that she’s out of touch with the residents of her district about.
Despite the best efforts of those on the Right to brand it as such, this isn’t about economics or cost. It’s about doing the right thing and ending discrimination within Milwaukee.
I imagine a similar debate took place 30 years ago to decide if employees in inter-racial marriages could have their partner covered by family health insurance. Just as today, I can imagine the same short sighted – and frankly, bigoted – people trying to recast the issue as one of economics instead of one of equality.
As others have mentioned, if the County Board and County Executive aren’t willing to give same sex domestic partners the same rights as those in “traditional” marriage, those people should ask that the share of taxes they pay to the County be withheld. If you’re going to treat them differently when they’re on the receiving end of benefits, they should be allowed to be treated differently when they’re asked to pay their fair share of taxes as well.
I live in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Milwaukee, WI with my wife Jen, our daughter Emerson, and son Carter.
