THE CONTROVERSY OVER DOMESTIC PARTNER BENEFITS

This exercise is designed to provide you with the opportunity to make your own decision about a very controversial issue in business today: should organizations offer domestic partner benefits to same-sex partners and heterosexual live-ins. As is true with most controversial issues, people tend to have very strong feelings about this issue. Supporters tend to focus on equality and tolerance issues, while those who oppose the benefits focus on financial and moral implications.

Read the following statement and choose a side (either you agree with the statement, which is the pro side, or you disagree with the statement, which is the con side of the argument).

Resolved: Organizations who offer benefits to married couples should offer the same benefits to domestic partners.

Once you have chosen a side, research the issue to find facts to support your belief. Prepare a one page executive summary and a cover letter addressed to the Director of Human Resources, detailing three to five arguments in support of your belief (either pro or con). The executive summary should be persuasive in nature, as to convince the HR Director that domestic partner benefits should either be offered or not.