"You are butt-ass joking me!"

In the words of my former dorm-mate Shandy, I am expressing my feelings about my effing employer's new proposals for our union contract, which is up for renewal next month. The most unbelievably freeging asanine suggestion of which is removing our health insurance coverage for domestic partners and their dependents. As in, ours. Who the hell are these people and what the hell do they think they are doing to my family?! Now, we're fortunate in that we work for the same company and can buy "single" insurance if we have to. We are also fortunate in that we live in Massachusetts, and may have our marriage recognized by our insurance company this fall when we get married, and if they do then we may be able to keep it unless the initiative petition to destroy equal marriage passes. In that case, maybe we could keep the insurance for two years (before that possible passage), and if that discrimination did pass into the constitution, our insurance company might recognize that little part about those already married staying married, or they might not. The big problem for us is that so much of this stuff is based on federal marriage anyway, we still need to be recognized as domestic partners even after we're married, in order to be protected in our health insurance. For example, if Josi takes an extended maternity leave, I might not be able to cover our newborn baby. If our marriage were to be nullified by the state later, she wouldn't be able to cover me or our baby if I took that extended maternity leave. If one of us got sick or hurt badly enough to have to stop working, that would rack us up some huge medical bills. If my child by Josi were to get sick, I couldn't take time off (remember, the Family and Medical Leave Act only applies to federally married people in that case), especially in the first six months- it takes at least six months in Massachusetts to finalize a 2nd parent adoption. And on and on. This sucks! And all the straight and unmarried couples would be screwed, too... I feel like my employer just slapped me in the face. Hard. And it's amazing how quickly they've just made me go from loving my job to hating it- sounds like a good business productivity idea, huh?