Domestic Partners And Employee Benefits 1994

How does the standard of living of gay men and lesbians compare with that of heterosexuals? Do homosexuals make financial and family decisions differently? Why are the professional lives of gay men and lesbians dissimilar from those of heterosexuals? Or do they even differ? Have gay people benefited from the recent economic boom? Or have public policies denied them their fair share? Money, Myths, and Change provides new answers to these complex questions. This is the first comprehensive work to explore the economic lives of gays and lesbians in the United States. M. V. Lee Badgett weaves through and debunks common stereotypes about gay privilege, income, and consumer behavior. Studying the ends and means of gay life from an economic perspective, she disproves the assumption that gay men and lesbians are more affluent than heterosexuals, that they inspire discrimination when they come out of the closet, that they consume more conspicuously, that they enjoy a more self-indulgent, even hedonistic lifestyle. Badgett gets to the heart of these misconceptions through an analysis of the crucial issues that affect the livelihood of gay men and lesbians: discrimination in the workplace, denial of health care benefits to domestic partners and children, lack of access to legal institutions such as marriage, the corporate wooing of gay consumer dollars, and the use of gay economic clout to inspire social and political change. Both timely and readable, Money, Myths, and Change stands as a much-needed corrective to the assumptions that inhibit gay economic equality. It is a definitive work that sheds new light on just what it means to be gay or lesbian in the United States.

Fiscal realities and changing social priorities are requiring a dramatic shift in the way that benefits are selected and awarded to employees, especially in the public sector. This means that public administrators and policy researchers must consider new parameters and contingencies, both financial and social, when evaluating choices and making pol

This book provides an overview of current developments within feminist political economy, including reformulations of economic theory, historical and empirical research on the economic roles and status of women and people of color, as well as proposals for broadening the public policy agenda. Rather than offering a feminist critique of neoclassical economics, this volume presents feminist economics in dialogue with progressive economic theory and public policy. It differentiates itself further by addressing issues of class, race and sexuality in interaction with gender.

Should same-sex couples be permitted to marry? Or should a separate institution of "registered partnership" or "civil union" be created for them? Or should the rights and duties of unmarried different-sex couples be extended to them? Should they be allowed to adopt each other's children, or jointly adopt an unrelated child? How should they be treated with regard to employment, social security, pensions, housing, immigration, taxation, inheritance, and divorce? These questions are being debated around the world, as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered persons increasingly (but not uniformly) insist that they cannot be truly equal without equal treatment for the loving and lasting relationships they form with their partners. In "Legal Recognition of Same-Sex Partnerships", an international team of scholars examines both theoretical issues and the wide variety of legal developments in the United States, Canada, Brazil, thirteen European countries, Israel, South Africa, India, Japan, China, Australia and New Zealand, as well as under European Community and European Convention law, and United Nations human rights law.