I read up on this on Wikipedia.

It reminded me of the fact that The Girl was recently told at work that her insurance benefits could now extend to her Domestic Partner.

She, and another employee, were ecstatic until they found out that they can only enjoy this benefit if their Domestic Partner was of the same gender.

Yep, I can't get health benefits because I'm neither married nor gay.

So, I'm torn. Part of me wants to drive really far just to give Chick-Fil-A my money, and part of me wants to never eat there ever again.







Their food does nothing for me. I guess I'll just keep keeping myself down by not eating their food.

Emphasizing the bold part, yes, I understand your frustration here. And I feel for you. However, you have that option of marrying The Girl and being entitled to share her work benefits. I do not have the option to marry any partner I am with because some people feel that marriage has a definition of opposite sex.

Companies are extending benefits to same sex partners because they can't become the married partners that they want to be. And even if they perform a ceremony, it means nothing in most states.

It's a sad state of affairs, really. A man and a woman's marriage does not affect me at all. Why would my marriage to another man affect anyone else's marriage?

However, because I can't get married to the man I love, companies are being mindful of that and allowing my benefits to carry over to him. However, it's not so cut and dry. There is criteria that must be met for the benefits to take effect.

Are you against gay marriage? Your statement about going to Chik-Fil-A even if you don't like their food makes me think you do, but it could just be you are upset about the benefit ruling at The Girl's company.

As much as I understand your stance I must point out one thing. For one reason or another a company or corporate enterprise does something that one or more people does not agree with or like. Because of this it is hard to really shop anywhere.

However, we are just talking about some fast food so it is no big deal.

COMMANDERCOOL HAS ARRIVED! Now the new thread can begin for real.

Today seems to be my last day of summa. Class starts Wodensday and I work Monday and Tuesday all day. I think somebody owes me like six more months of free time. Once I figure out who it is I'm sending them a sternly worded letter.

They have outright stated their dislike for GLBT community and support movements to prevent equality. I am actively aware of their efforts, and as such, I choose not to support them. There was a time when my friends were trying to get me to boycott Target because of a donation made to a politician with an anti-gay agenda. However, Target supports same-sex couples in the same manner of my employer and I'm assuming Haven's girl's employer. That says a little more to me than the contribution since it's unclear as to why they contributed (possibly for reasons other than anti-gay involvement).

As other companies come along that are like this, and I become aware, I will likely adjust my spending habits as well. Again, I hold nothing against them for their beliefs because that's their beliefs.

No, my point was that I'm screwed if I don't eat at Chick-Fil-A and I'm screwed if I do.

I'm pretty sure Chick-Fil-A would not be comfortable with our present situation. We made a marriage-level commitment to each other almost seven years ago. I've been "married" before and it really showed me how useless the whole thing is in the first place. You can do everything right; not rush into it, make sure you have the money and stability to do it right, etc. and then the other person can be a raving psycho and the fact that you were "married" means less than nothing. So I wasn't looking to get married again any time soon.

Like I said, it's been almost seven years and we've been through (and are still experiencing) some really hard times and we're still together. We are not in a place financially where getting married is a good idea. But it would be nice if we could run down to the court house and enter into a domestic partnership and get the benefits that we basically should have gotten six years ago.

I'm pretty sure Chick-Fil-A wouldn't want me getting those benefits without actually getting married, so that's where I was going.

My real thoughts on Gay Marriage? Useless; like all marriage basically is. When it comes to the rights and benefits of marriage, I think the government should stay the hell out. Marriage, traditionally, has always been too wrapped up in religion. If you're getting married by a religious figure, you basically have to get married twice; once at the court house and once again at the "real" wedding. The benefits of marriage should be available to anyone willing to commit to each other and the government should provide that through civil unions. If people then want to go off and do some religious or other ceremony and then call it a marriage under their own definitions; great. The government should only recognize it as a civil union. If someone doesn't like the definition of "marriage" they can call it "Phillip" or something.

When I was in college I was living with a really good friend of mine. We were both hetero despite what many people thought. But both of us were having a really hard time finding partners. You might call us picky, but we were looking for marriage level commitment from women who wanted families and were active and weren't into the materialist, alcohol culture party scene. Well, let me tell you, at that age EVERY girl didn't apply.

We said that it would be great if we could both just give up looking for these women that didn't exist and live with each other and adopt children for the rest of our lives if we could only get the benefits of marriage or the acceptance of the adoption system. You can imagine how that would have worked out. So I guess I've been "for" "gay marriage" all along.

Thank you for the clarification, Haven. I was a little confused.

*Plants flag in thread*

Wow, it's crazy how quickly you guys run through these things. I'm going to have to order my flags in bulk next time.

I don't like Chik-fil-A any way, shape, or form. Partly for the reasons you mention, K-ness (a friend of mine recently told me about that) and partly because you'd think a place that "specialized" in chicken sandwiches could make one that wasn't dry and tasteless. lol I always felt that their loyal customer base was one of nostalgia, much like In-N-Out Burger in Cali. Worst burgers ever and fries like greasy sponges yet if you visit CA and listen to the populace you'd think they were the greatest things ever.

For clix storage, I use Akro-Mils 44 drawer containers with labels on the drawers. They would hold an entire older (and larger) set and hold 2 newer sets. They also sit nicely sideways on a bookshelf. It's an expensive way of sorting, but my figures are always in good condition and easy to find.

Good points here. When I was reading up on Chick-Fil-A (DAMN, now I don't like these guys because their name is so damn hard to type!) I noticed that the term Anti-Gay came up a lot, but it didn't seem to really go along with what they were associating it with. I really dislike that label. It's often used in such a way the if you're not out-marching-pro-gay, you must be anti-gay or (let's really trot out the PC power-words) homophobic. Can I please not be homophillic and NOT be homophobic? Can I just be a person who's decent to everybody?

Unless they put ketchup on their hot dogs; because we've got to have SOME standards.

Nah, man. It's cool.

I guess I can see where you would have gotten that I was just trying to make a joke about the fact that I'm apparently on no one's "side" and getting screwed from both ends and I guess it didn't come off right.

Comedy; is difficult, no?

Hell, no one even caught my earlier Fawlty Towers reference.

I like those. People laugh, but I always feel something is missing if i don't have the newest clix somewhere nearby, but I also don't want bins stacked up in the living room or den. Those fit the bill nicely!

Haven: I still can't see what part of you would want to give Chick-Fil-A money. It isn't as if they're doing anything to crusade to your benefit... unless you're going to fall into the trap of thinking that if they deny someone else something it's a victory for you. I see and hear way too much of that these days, and it sickens me -- especially when I see how often it's used to pit smaller groups against each other for the benefit of another group that's already in power. (Related joke: A CEO, a Teacher's Union rep and a non-union employee sit down at a table and the waitress brings a tray of a dozen cookies. The CEO immediately takes 11 cookies, then whispers to the non-union employee, "The teacher wants to take your cookie.")

I do agree with you on the underlying problem we have in this country concerning marriage. The government should never have gotten in the business of selling marriage licenses. Of course, I understand that they understandably lacked the foresight to realize they should have only been granting something more sterile - purely for legal and tax purposes - such as what we would now see as "civil unions."

We can't undo the past, but they could start to fix the future by phasing out the granting of marriage licenses and dealing only in civil unions. Let's leave "marriage" as something that's either a case of personal and/or religious definition, making it a term with no legal weight on its own.

My storage system is a mess. I have all of my 'Clix dumped haphazardly into one of five plastic bins: Pre-card figures I'll use maybe, pre-card figures I'll never use and should get rid of, carded retired figures, and carded modern figures, with a separate, smaller box for very fragile figures. Most of the boxes have hundreds of figures in them, so finding things isn't fast or easy.

I think with Chik-Fil-A, their principles are based on hyper-conservative, Southern Baptist type values. If someone leans that way, then that person admires everything they stand for, including the closed on Sunday thing.

Personally, I think their food is decent, but I haven't been in to eat in quite a while because I can't stand that brand of repressive religious idea. I don't have a problem with religion, but do have a personal dislike for intolerance. I lean more toward Quaker tolerance for many things. Including when I do have to go to Chik-Fil-A because one of my elderly relatives asks me to take them there.