Partners of Mobil employees who have been receiving coverage will continue to get benefits, but neither newly hired gay employees nor those who take a partner in the future will be able to obtain benefits for their partners. Gay rights advocates attacked the new policy along with Exxon Mobil's antidiscrimination policy which, unlike Mobil's policy, does not specify sexual orientation as a category of forbidden discrimination.
See "Exxon to Stop Giving Benefits to Partners of Gay Workers", Richard A. Oppel, Jr., The New York Times, December 6, 1999