dojR001712.xml

dojR001712.xml

born-digital

email

yes

no

2002-03-18

Monday, March 18, 2002 9:49 AM
9/11 Fund Compensation Awards

I am writing to express my concern over the comments made recently by
Kenneth Zwick regarding the potential of payments being made to partners and
families of gay and lesbian victims. It seems that if you're bending the
law to include illegal aliens and their families, you should not USE the law
as a way to discriminate against gays and lesbians. Using state law as your
guide is not a fair way to determine the eligibility of victims' families
for money that has been received from around the country and the world.
Many of those donations have come from gay and lesbian donors, some of whom
have been personally touched by this tragedy, most of whom haven't, but are
showing their support and their patriotism toward the 90% of the population
that are straight AND the 10% who are gay.

Please reconsider using state law as your guide; the states have NOTHING to
do with this issue. Please do use the same compassion that is driving you
to ignore federal law in some cases to include people who have committed to
their partners within a system that doesn't ALLOW them to be legally
recognized.

Thank you for your attention.


Individual Comment
St Louis Park, MN

2002-03-18