Some folks that contract with the City of Portland might opt to offer no spousal benefits rather than extend them to gays. It is the equal privileges and immunities thing to do. Which, is a prohibition upon creating special classes for pleasure or pain and thus to reduce strife and conflict at the hands of government. Yet The Oregonian concludes that parity would cause "resentment."

What's a little bizarre about Adams' proposal is that businesses that offer no health insurance might be the big winners. Businesses that offer health benefits and want to compete for city contracts would have to move to parity for opposite-sex and same-sex employees. But businesses that don't offer health benefits could win contracts by offering their own version of parity -- no health insurance for anyone.

That's what bothers Dave Chown of Chown Hardware: The requirement could have the perverse effect of rewarding businesses that provide fewer benefits. "We feel like it's discriminatory the other way," Chown told The Oregonian. "And blackballs a company that does a lot of good things." Exactly.

This is the kind of requirement that makes Portland a parody of itself -- or of Berkeley. It doesn't stimulate progress, or business, or results.

It mostly stimulates resentment.
[ On gay rights, political pressure doesn't equate to real progress ]

The parity they are concerned about is between the offer of any partner benefits versus no benefits at all. My earlier comment can be found below, and begins as follows:

Shall we start with the premise that the extension of a special privilege to opposite-gender couples that obtain a certificate and register it with the state is a violation of the equal privileges and immunities clause?

The extension of benefits to a distinct class comprised of same-gender couples does not eliminate the violation noted above, but only strikes out one class of persons that could raise the equal privileges and immunities argument in court.
[ (Special RIghts To Expose Your Private Sex Life To The World) Portland City Commissioner Sam Adams: The Equal Benefits Ordinance | PDXNAG.COM ]