Gay Rights Bills

I have been reporting up at the legislature for the past month now, and I must say that the biggest issue has definitely been a group of gay-rights bills called the Common Ground Initiative which all failed in committee hearings. They consist of hospitalization, inheritance, fair workplace and housing rights, along with a state-wide domestic partnership registry. Another bill in the initiative to repeal the last part of Amendment Three, which states that marriage is between a man and a woman and no other domestic union may be recognized as marriage or be given the same or substantially equivalent legal effect, was withdrawn after people speculated that all the bills in the initiative were meant to undermine marriage. I have to say that while I was attending the committee hearings on the bills I found myself torn on some of the bills. As far as hospitalization and inheritance rights I heard a lot of testimony stating that gay couples can already fill out forms to designate their relationships, and make out wills to give themselves these rights. Although I haven't checked into it completely, it sounded like they already have these rights and the argument that it was expensive isn't true. All you need is a notary fee for the forms which is minimal, and an attorney is not needed to draft a will. Some argued that married couples get these rights without doing anything, and I agree, we have a lot less effort, but we still have to apply for a marriage license and everything, and put our spouse in our wills, change insurance benefits, life insurance etc. The one bill that I was strongly in support of and was very amazed that it failed was the fair workplace and housing rights. It is one thing not to give further rights, but allowing people to discriminate against gays is whole other thing. An employer can fire someone specifically because they are gay, can tell that to their face, and nothing ca be done. It would be different if Utah was not an at-will state, but you can fire someone for any reason you want, so how does this cause a problem. People shouldn't be kicked out or fired because they are gay.