Opinion:    “All businesses will be forced to provide benefits to same-sex partners. This will take away their freedom to make the decision based on business principles and subject them to government mandated same-sex partner benefits.

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Fact:  No business in the United States is required to provide optional benefits such as health insurance to any employee. However, in states where same-sex marriage is legal, if spousal benefits are offered, companies may not extend benefits only to opposite-sex spouses. This is a function of insurance regulation in the respective states, and would be expected in any state extending legal marriage to same-sex couples.

But, in Massachusetts, legalized same-sex marriage has meant that some companies have opted to stop extending benefits to domestic partners on the grounds that those couples could now legally marry. Benefit laws are not necessarily proportional to a state’s acceptance of domestic partnerships.