Comments on: Gay Marriage Boon to Massachusetts Economy http://www.courtingequality.com/archives/98 A Documentary History of America's First Legal Same-Sex Marriages Sat, 17 Dec 2011 08:19:55 -0600 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Karen Rudolph http://www.courtingequality.com/archives/98/comment-page-1#comment-6832 Karen Rudolph Mon, 17 Mar 2008 00:23:22 +0000 http://www.courtingequality.com/archives/98#comment-6832 I owned a large construction company in Silicon Valley. We spent a lot of money recruiting good employees. We had medical insurance for domestic partners. For the straight married people, it wasn't considered to be part of their income and they didn't have to pay income taxes on it. The gay employees had to include the value in their taxes. We would give them the money to pay the taxes but it got confusing because then they were making higher salaries than their straight counterparts. We had domestic partner benefits because it was the right thing to do...and we didn't want to lose employees to companies that had those benefits. I would have been really upset if any of our employees had moved to MA because CA didn't allow gay marriage. Although who could blame them. This discrimination has to end. I owned a large construction company in Silicon Valley. We spent a lot of money recruiting good employees. We had medical insurance for domestic partners. For the straight married people, it wasn’t considered to be part of their income and they didn’t have to pay income taxes on it. The gay employees had to include the value in their taxes. We would give them the money to pay the taxes but it got confusing because then they were making higher salaries than their straight counterparts.

We had domestic partner benefits because it was the right thing to do…and we didn’t want to lose employees to companies that had those benefits.

I would have been really upset if any of our employees had moved to MA because CA didn’t allow gay marriage. Although who could blame them. This discrimination has to end.

]]> By: Christopher McIntosh http://www.courtingequality.com/archives/98/comment-page-1#comment-6827 Christopher McIntosh Wed, 12 Mar 2008 04:10:52 +0000 http://www.courtingequality.com/archives/98#comment-6827 Thank you for sharing this article! Indeed, I have pondered whether my life might be improved by living in Massachusetts vs. remaining in Missouri to re-hash the struggle to get us to a "state of equality" as it were with Massachusetts' citizens. Thank you for sharing this article! Indeed, I have pondered whether my life might be improved by living in Massachusetts vs. remaining in Missouri to re-hash the struggle to get us to a “state of equality” as it were with Massachusetts’ citizens.

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