Equal rights include the right to live free from persecution and violence based on sexual orientation. For example, it was used successfully in November 1992 to convince a majority of Colorado voters that they should enact a state constitutional amendment called Amendment 2 repealing all existing gay rights laws and barring any future enactment of such laws. Therefore, laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation are merely intended to provide equal rights to level the playing field so that lesbians and gay men will be judged according to their abilities, not based on their sexual orientation. These ordinances, while not conferring all of the rights and responsibilities of marriage, generally grant registered partners some of the economic benefits accorded to married couples typically, sick and bereavement leave and insurance and survivorship benefits for city employees. To deny their relationships full legal recognition is to unfairly deprive lesbians and gay men of benefits that married heterosexuals take for granted.
Employers often extend health insurance, pension and other benefits on the basis of marital status.
Thus, practically speaking, lesbians and gay men cannot achieve complete equality in American society until the government officially recognizes their relationships.