LGBT voices muted in MLive story on domestic partner benefits legislation

Earlier today, MLive posted a story about what “West Michigan Leaders” think about the likelihood that Michigan Governor Rick Snyder will sign off on legislation that will ban government employers from offering domestic partner benefits.

The MLive article cites four difference sources as being West Michigan leaders. The first is Matt McLogan, spokesperson for GVSU, who says that Senator Mark Jansen told him this legislation will not effect university employees who currently receive domestic partner benefits, even though the House version of the bill that passed yesterday would include public universities in the ban.

However, McLogan acknowledges that it is ultimately up to what the Governor says about the issue and how he interprets the language of the bill. “We will await the governor’s treatment of the bill and a legal analysis,” said McLogan.

A second source cited is Rockford School Superintendent Mike Shibler, who thinks the issue is a waste of time. “There are too many other important issues that the state legislature should be working on.”

The two remaining voices in the MLive article are a Kent County Commissioner and an Ottawa County administrator, both of whom believe that a ban on domestic partner benefits would be in line with West Michigan values.

Kent County Commissioner Ted Vonk said, “It’s a very conservative area. We’re not going to be cutting edge on any of those liberal ideas.”

While one can debate the notion of who are and who aren’t leaders in West Michigan, it is quite dishonest of MLive to not seek out a single voice that takes the point of view that domestic partners in government/public employee should have the same benefits as people who are legally married.

There are plenty of heterosexual couples that are domestic partners who could be impacted from this legislation, but it is clear that the legislation introduced by Rep. Dave Adgema is targeted at taking away benefits from the LGBT community. This is the irony of the MLive story, which never mentions the LGBT community, despite the fact that it has been primarily the LGBT community that has monitored this issue for sometime and has put out action alerts in the past few days calling on people to pressure Snyder to veto this legislation.

It’s bad enough that the story does not explore how this legislation, if passed, will impact the LGBT community, but to have not one voice from that community is unacceptable. There are plenty of organizations and individuals in the LGBT community that are considered “leaders” in West Michigan, but their voices are effectively muted in this MLive story.