R002549
Thursday, March 21, 2002 3:42 PM
State laws compound tragedy of gays and lesbian victims of 9/11
I am not someone who will be impacted by how the Department of Justice
defines "family" when dispensing funds for the victims of the attacks on the
Pentagon and the World Trade Center. But every single person who died on
September 11 is part of my family. They should be part of your family, too,
and treated with equal respect. It is beyond an outrage if everyone who
suffered loss is not treated equally. People died in those attacks who had
families, who had children, but who did not have "wives" or "husbands". When
the government defines legal marriage as the only love that counts, hundreds
of people who had equal love for their partners are excluded from benefits
they rightfully and morally deserve.
Particularly at the Pentagon, everyone who works there is a patriot.
Everyone who died was a patriot. New York law allows domestic partnership
benefits through an executive order from the New York governor. If a gay or
lesbian victim worked at the Pentagon and lived in Virginia and then died as
a result of the terrorist attacks, his or her partner is denied benefits
because of Virginia's archaic and hurtful laws born out of religious dogma.
Virginia is wrong, and the US government shouldn't compound this outrage.
There is no equity when the laws vary from state to state about who can be
defined as "family." It's beyond absurd, and it bears no image of justice.
Or mercy.
If you have any sense of decency or patriotism, then ALL survivors' life
partners--straight, gay and lesbian--should get equal benefits. Gays and
lesbians aren't ALLOWED to get married, and now the government is
considering that they be punished for not being married. Do the right thing:
Allow gay and lesbian domestic partners to be given EQUAL benefits.
Individual Comment
Urbana, Illinois