dojA001303.xml

dojA001303.xml

born-digital

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2001-12-07

Friday, December 07, 2001 3:32 PM
Response to "September 11 Victim Compensation Fund"

Kenneth L. Zwick, Director
Office of Management Programs
U.S. Department of Justice
Civil Division
Main Building, Room 3140
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530

Re: September 11 Victim Compensation Program

Dear Mr. Zwick:

I am writing on behalf of myself in response to the
Department's November 5, 2001 request for public
comments regarding the Department's forthcoming
regulations for implementing and administering the
"September 11 Victim Compensation Fund" established by
the Air Transportation Safety and System Stabilization
Act ("the Act"). As that Act makes clear, the purpose
of the Fund is to provide compensation to any persons
who were physically injured in the September 11
terrorist attacks as well as to the surviving
"relatives" of those who died.

I strongly urge the Department to promulgate
regulations ensuring that compensation is available to
all surviving family members of those killed,
including the committed partners and the
non-biological children of gay and lesbian victims.
Just as the terrorists drew no lines in killing
people, our country must absolutely draw no lines in
compensating those who suffered the most personal of
losses from these horrific deaths. In promulgating its
regulations, the Department should look not to legal
formalisms that may define relatives or families for
purposes of other laws, but rather to the realities of
the lives of those who were killed and those who loved
and were dependent on them.

It is clear from the Act that this is precisely the
approach the Department must take in administering the
Fund. The Act specifically identifies a number of
"economic" and "non-economic" losses for which
compensation is to be awarded from the Fund. These
include burial costs, loss of earnings, physical and
emotional pain, suffering, mental anguish, and loss of
society and companionship. See 402(5) and 402(7).
It is unquestionable that the survivors of those
killed on September 11 suffered these types of losses
regardless of their sexual orientation or marital
status or their formal legal relationship to the
deceased. Indeed, grief and economic loss know no such
boundaries. The emotional devastation and economic
loss caused by the death of one's partner is not any
less because that person was of the same sex as the
survivor. A child's anguishing loss of a parent is not
any less because there was no biologic tie. Since the
purpose of the Fund is to compensate survivors
precisely for the types of losses suffered by family
members of those killed, the Department's regulations
should not and indeed cannot properly exclude anyone
who was a family member in fact.

In the immediate aftermath of the September 11
tragedies, as various victim-relief funds were being
established, some on the extreme radical right
criticized relief agencies that had made clear their
intent to make funds available to assist not only
surviving married spouses of persons killed in the
attacks but also the surviving partners of gay men and
lesbians who had been killed. These cruel and
reprehensible calls for the exclusion of gay and
lesbian families from relief efforts have been
accompanied by claims that the effort to provide
relief to all who have suffered is somehow a push for
a so-called "gay agenda." However, the determination
of who was actually victimized by the September 11
attacks, of who actually suffered loss, of who
actually is grieving, is not about advancing some
alleged political "agenda." What is at issue here is a
human tragedy of unimaginable horror and dimension,
and about the fair and humane treatment of all who
have personally suffered from the acts of the
terrorists.

Many gay and lesbian Americans lost their lives on
September 11. Many of them left behind loved ones,
including partners and children whose lives were
intertwined with theirs and who were dependent on them
for financial as well as emotional support. A number
of them are known to have engaged in heroic acts that
day, and they have been praised as national heroes. It
would be an insult not only to those heroes, but to
all who died on that tragic day, for the Department to
draw artificial lines defining loss and grief. In
fact, it would be unconscionable. We urge that the
Department's regulations reflect these concerns.

I am a heterosexual male, living in Ellensburg,
Washington. I am absolutely amazed that my country
would have the audacity and ignorance to even consider
any of the unfair practices you are contemplating. My
elected officials shall most definitely hear from me
and my vote(s) in the future are contingent heavily
upon their response.

Sincerely,

Individual Comment
Ellensburg, WA

2001-12-07