R000628
Wednesday, March 13, 2002 1:59 PM
September 11th Victim Compensation Fund Discrimination
I have just read a column by that made my jaw drop. I refer you to this URL: http://uspolitics.about.com/library/weekly/aa031102a.htm.
summarized the appearance on the Sunday, March 10 broadcast of NBC's "Meet the Press" of Kenneth Feinberg, the head of the September 11th
Victim Compensation Fund. Feinberg said that domestic partners of gay
people who died in the September 11th attacks will not be eligible for the
same compensation as heterosexual family members who lost their loved
ones. This is bad enough, but then he said that the Attorney General has
promised undocumented aliens that if they come forward to claim a benefit,
they will get a check as compensation for their lost family
member. Relatives of people who were in violation of federal law will be
compensated by the same government whose laws their loved one broke.
When it comes to gay people who died, and their survivors, however,
Feinberg conveniently falls back on a states' rights argument to exclude
the survivors from being compensated. Feinberg claims that this policy is
meant to avoid lawsuits. I hope and expect that he'll get lawsuits anyway
from those everyway-but-legal family members of gay people who died that
day. Does Feinberg forget that , a gay man, was one of those who prevented United Flight 93 from crashing into government buildings in
Washington, D.C.? That the of American Airlines flight 77 was a gay may who may have left behind a grieving partner? That , a gay priest, died while giving aid to a wounded fireman? And these are just a few of the gay victims
whose deaths have been publicized.
This policy is a slap in the face to ordinary Americans who did
extraordinary things on September 11th. To place illegal aliens ahead of
United States citizens when awarding this compenstation is ludicrous and
insulting. The federal government spends my gay tax dollars just as freely
as anyone else's, and I expect to see those dollars distributed to all
victims equally.
Individual Comment
San Diego, CA