The National Organization for Marriage gets more pathetic every day. Trumpeting “Victory in Virginia!,” a post at the NOM blog reads:
According to reports, “The Richmond City Council gave itself at least another month to think over a proposal to allow spousal health benefits for non-married partners of employees.”
That’s the quote, but the truth is they gave themselves another month to think over a proposal that would redefine marriage in the City of Richmond if and when the Commonwealth of Virginia did the same. Don’t be fooled, this seemingly innocuous proposal is not about benefits but about the definition of marriage.
The proposed ordinance would simply be playing politics and using the bully pulpit to promote a radical agenda, inviting out-of-state influences and special interests into Virginia during a critical Gubernatorial election season.
But what gave the Council pause? It was the noble effort of a small coalition of local faith leaders led by Bishop Darryl Husband, Bishop Leon Benjamin, and Pastor Michael Hirsch. These men stood up for marriage in front of City Hall and delivered the resounding message that marriage is the union of one man and one woman because that’s the way it best serves society, and especially our society’s most precious members, our children. They delivered this message boldly and clearly, and they were heard!
But you were heard as well!
Oh dear. Now let’s go to the original source and play a little game I like to call, “What Really Happened?” Well, what happened was:
The Richmond City Council gave itself at least another month to think over a proposal to allow spousal health benefits for non-married partners of employees.
During a committee meeting Thursday, the proposal to back same-sex marriage benefits was continued until Oct. 28 at the behest of one of the three councilmen who proposed it in July, Parker C. Agelasto of the 5th District.
The idea is likely to be greatly amended by Oct. 24, the next time the council’s Government Operations Committee meets. The committee will discuss the proposal before possibly sending it on for full council consideration four days later.
Agelasto said he wants to broaden the group of people eligible from same-sex partners to include a category called “other qualified adults,” a private-industry staple that offers benefits to partners — gay and heterosexual — as well as to certain family members of employees.
The people added to the employee policies would pay 100 percent of their own premiums, meaning the city would be on the hook for little more than administrative costs.
“It would give us a competitive advantage,” Agelasto said. “We can’t compete financially (with private industry), but we’d like to be able to compete with benefits.”
Oh. So basically, the bill was continued by its sponsor and will be expanded so as to put Richmond at a competitive advantage. Fun fact: adding same-sex spousal benefits puts corporations and governments at an advantage 100% of the time when it comes to recruiting and retaining the best talent.
But NOM is so desperate to show its donors that it is doing something, anything, that results in even one piddly iota of success, and this is what they’re reduced to being excited about.
I guess that beats writing a blog post alerting their readers to the fact that a New Jersey judge legalized marriage equality today.
