A bill quietly introduced in the U.S. House would allow employers to offer tax-free health benefits to their workers' gay partners. Family advocates call it a stealth attack on marriage.
When a spouse is added to a health-care plan, the employer generally covers part of the cost. That amounts to a tax-free benefit to the employee. The bill by Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., would extend that to partners of gay employees. It was drafted by the pro-homosexual Human Rights Campaign.
Peter Sprigg, vice president for policy at the Family Research Council, said it's an incremental step toward redefining marriage.
"There are people in Congress who will use every avenue they can to chip away at the traditional definition of marriage," he told Family News in Focus.
Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth, said the law treats married couples and gay unions differently – not out of so-called homophobia – but because the state has a vested interest in promoting marriage.
"There is only one union, which is the marriage union, which benefits society in so many ways," he said. "We want to create incentives for people to stay in and be married and raise children and order society that way."
The McDermott bill is not only bad for society, according to tax attorney Zachary Gray, it's bad for business.
"If I'm an employer and I pay you with after-tax money, that hurts my bottom line much more deeply," he said. "What's going to happen is employers are going to start saying, 'We're just not going to bother. We're just going to pay you a salary and you can go get your own.'"
(Paid for by Focus on the Family Action)
