This boycott American cars BS the Rethugs are spewing fits right in with their anti-gay agenda

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http://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/09/business/big-carmakers-extend-benefits-to-gay-couples.html

Big Carmakers Extend Benefits To Gay Couples

By KEITH BRADSHER
Published: Friday, June 9, 2000

General Motors, Ford and DaimlerChrysler's Chrysler division announced today that they would begin offering medical, dental and prescription drug benefits for same-sex partners of their 466,000 hourly and salaried employees in the United States, the largest move yet by corporate America to provide such benefits for gay and lesbian couples.

Many companies in the financial, media, entertainment and airline industries and some state and local governments have offered same-sex benefits in the last several years. But gay and lesbian advocates said the automakers' decisions dwarfed previous corporate moves and were particularly welcome because Midwestern companies have been slow to provide such benefits.

''When the Big Three come together as a group to announce domestic benefits for same-sex couples, it's really a sea change,'' said Kim I. Mills, the education director of the Human Rights Campaign, a group that represents gay, lesbian and transgender Americans. ''We have not seen this kind of movement in the manufacturing sector.''

The two largest American companies offering same-sex benefits until now have been I.B.M. and Citigroup, she said. Both companies are based in the New York area, where gays and lesbians are more influential than in the Midwest.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit expressed dismay at the automakers' decision. The Catholic Church favors open and equal access to health care, but ''anything that compromises or erodes the traditional shape of the family tears at the very fabric of moral relationships that the church seeks to uphold,'' said Ned McGrath, a spokesman for the archdiocese.

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1. The lack of interest in this thread confirms the theory that no good deed goes unpunished