R002638
Friday, March 22, 2002 2:16 PM
exclusion gay/lesbian partner in Victim Compensation Fund
While I am so glad to hear of all that is being done
to assist families of Sept. 11 victims, I am outraged
to learn that partners of gay and lesbian victims will
not be assisted in the same way as family members of
heterosexual victims. A victim is a victim, and grief
is grief. Though there may be no legal bond between
two partners of the same sex who have chosen to love
and support one another and spend the rest of their
lives together, that is only because current laws do
not allow them to create the same legal bond as a man
and a woman. Gay couples support one another in every
way heterosexual couples support one another, and one
of those ways is financially. In fact, as many gay
people have been alienated by family members, their
partner and other friends, often fuction as their only
family. In short, I feel this causes a great sadness,
that, in many ways, still America refuses to be
"united" and to agreed that "all men [and woman] are
created equal." I ask that you please reconsider
exclusion of gay and lesbian partners in the September
11 Victim Compensation Fund. Otherwise, you are deeply
dishonoring these victims' lives, love, and place as
Americans lost in a terrible tragedy.
Thank you,
Individual Comment