As UPS caves in, Fed Ex, DHL and scores of other companies continue to flaunt New Jersey's civil unions law

Garden State Equality, Monday, July 30 -- In a reversal of company policy, United Parcel Service today announced it would give benefits to employees in New Jersey civil unions on the same basis as the company gives benefits to married straight employees. 

Also as of today, 211 couples have reported to Garden State Equality that their employers refuse to recognize their civil unions.  With the state recently having reported that 1,358 couples have gotten civil-unioned since the law took effect on February 19, the law's failure rate is an astonishing 1 in every 7.

Among the companies flaunting the civil unions law, according to two of the complaints, are two competitors of UPS:  Fed Ex and DHL.

"Equal protection under the law is not supposed to wind through a tunnel of hell, where gay couples have to threaten companies with lawsuits and where Governors have to write letters to shame the companies into doing the right thing," said Steven Goldstein, chair of Garden State Equality.  "But that's what gay couples have been reduced to under New Jersey's civil unions law. 

Contact: Steven Goldstein, cell (917) 449-8918, Goldstein@GardenStateEquality.org 

"Because of the New Jersey civil unions law, which isn't consistently respected in the real world, many gay couples have been reduced to begging.  It's worthy of a cinematic tragedy, like when Oliver had to beg for more porridge.  'Please sir, may I have my civil union benefits?'

"The torture that UPS put this one couple through, before the company finally relented and gave the couple benefits, shows how pathetic the law is.  Many companies don't understand the civil unions law, and many other companies understand the law but don't respect it.  Either way, the law is an abject failure in consistently providing same-sex couples equal protection.

"What will happen to the employees who work for the many other companies, like Fed Ex and DHL, that won't cave in?  How many of these couples and their children will have to suffer before the New Jersey legislature corrects the epidemic of inequality that the civil unions law has created?"

"Marriage is the only currency of commitment the real world universally accepts.  Marriage is the only way same-sex couples in New Jersey will ever receive equality."