Same-sex benefits are 'business as usual'.

• Author: Rundles, Jeff
• Position: Rundles Wrap-up

I AM NOT GAY, AND MY TIVO THINKS I'M STRAIGHT.

I am also not homophobic--mostly because I don't find anything about my life threatened by someone else's homosexual lifestyle.

Oh sure, in my business life there are a few obviously gay people I work with from time to time. But aside from noticing their "gayness," there is nothing about their being gay or not being gay that ever enters into the equation.

I am sure there are other co-workers who are not so obvious about their sexual preference, but like with most of the rest of the people I work with or that I just know, I never give their sexuality much thought at all.

But the "gay" issue, as it were, has come up a lot lately--Massachusetts is set to recognize gay marriage and, in the immediate past election, besides being raised as an issue in a presidential debate, 15 other states overwhelmingly rejected the notion of legalizing same-sex unions of any kind.

I've heard a bunch of rhetoric on both sides, as we all have, and I remain baffled by most of it. I just can't imagine how two people of the same sex being allowed to marry threatens my marriage in any way.

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At the same time, since there are ample legal remedies to such problems as hospital visitation and inheritance, I just don't understand why gay people themselves are compelled to have all of the rest of us publicly embrace their choice.

You're together; we get it. Whatever.

I am also not, by inclination, a terribly denominational fellow, and I am perfectly open to you believing in anything as long as it doesn't infringe on anyone else's rights. These are gray areas, to be sure, but as for me, I think the best part of freedom of religion is freedom from religion.

The funny thing is, though, that while the whole country is embroiled in this overt political and religious discussion on the relative merits of accepting or not accepting some sort of official recognition that there is, indeed, a significant faction in our society with a gay lifestyle, American business is busy accepting "gayness."

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I got to thinking about all of this when, just a few days ago, I received my company's Benefits Enrollment Program memorandum for the new year. My firm, a New York Stock Exchange-listed publishing company, without any fanfare whatsoever, simply said in the note, among many other bullet points, that "The Company will offer same-sex domestic partners coverage (emphasis theirs) in our medical, dental and...