dojR000427.xml

dojR000427.xml

born-digital

email

yes

no

2002-03-12

Tuesday, March 12, 2002 12:38 PM
no compensation for 9/11 surviving partners of gay/lesbian
couples


To: Kenneth Feinberg

Dear Mr. Feinberg,

I am writing as the pastor of a church in Northern California whose congregation includes several gay and lesbian couples, as well as some single members of the GLBT community. They all vote. They all pay taxes. They are all American citizens, and they all consider themselves to be proud Americans--even though America cannot decide to be proud of them--even when some of them are heroes. I realize that gay rights is too big a subject for an e-mail conversation, so I will simply say that I am profoundly disappointed in your decision to back away from sharing the compensation for victims of the 9/11 attack on America with the survivors of gay and lesbian partners. You fear lawsuits from those states that refuse to recognize their partnering as meriting government protection and recognition. There was a time, Mr. Feinberg, when black Americans would also not have been recognized as meriting the protection of the government of the United States, much less recognizing them as citizens entitled to the full protection of the Constitution. We have all lived with a burden of shame because of the fearfulness of men in government early in our history--men who knew slavery was wrong, yet did not have the courage to stand up against it. In issues of education and health care, California has done its worst to deny illegal aliens benefits or protection. Now you have the opportunity to be a courageous man in history, one who can stand up and say that the government of the United States belongs to all it's citizens, regardless of the attitude their state of residence adopts. You have promised benefits to those who are in the country illegally, who pay no taxes, who are not Americans, but who suffered as a result of the attack on America. You simply cannot let political agendas sway you away from the truth that the gay and lesbian persons who suffered ARE Americans, those on the planes and on the ground at Ground Zero, and those left behind to mourn. You simply cannot deny any of the survivors of those people who were willing to die resisting the attackers, the ones who died attempting to save others, or the ones who, like the foreign nationals and illegal aliens and straight Americans of all varieties, lost their lives in an attack against America. You have been courageous in the name of those who are not even citizens of the United States. Please, Mr. Feinberg, be courageous in the name of all Americans who suffered on September 11.
Individual Comment

2002-03-12