Pataki bolsters support for gay families directly impacted by WTC attacks

By Inga Sorensen

Republican Gov. George Pataki issued an executive order Oct. 11 granting surviving partners of gay and lesbian victims of the World Trade Center attacks equal benefits as spouses from the state’s Crime Victims Board.

According to the Empire State Pride Agenda, a statewide gay advocacy organization, the order marks the first official step taken by any level of government in the nation to address the inequities faced by gay and lesbian survivors of the terrorist attacks in obtaining benefits.

ESPA also has been working to ensure that private relief agencies, such as the Red Cross and United Way, treat gay surviving partners equitably with spouses, and that larger fund-raising efforts distribute monies to agencies that have policies that do treat gay survivors fairly.

Matt Foreman, ESPA’s executive director, said his group has received calls from gay men and lesbians directly impacted by the attacks on the World Trade Center seeking advice on how to approach relief agencies about financial support.

According to ESPA, gay and lesbian survivors may automatically think they’re not be eligible for survivor relief funds because they cannot legally marry, thus have no legal recognition as a couple. ESPA has contacted relief agencies about the matter, and wants gay men and lesbians to know assistance is available.

Meanwhile, as the Blade reported last week, Pataki told attendees of ESPA’s Oct. 4 fundraising dinner in Manhattan that he was going to issue his executive order, which allows gay partners to qualify for benefits to help offset the loss of household income resulting from the death of their partners by demonstrating that they and the deceased were mutually interdependent.

The benefits are up to $600 per week to a total of $30,000. Previously, said ESPA, surviving partners were not eligible for such benefits unless they could prove that the deceased was responsible for at least 75 percent of the household income. Surviving spouses and other blood relatives, on the other hand, were eligible for the benefits regardless of the degree of their dependence on the deceased. As a result of the order, surviving partners will receive the same benefits as spouses.

"Under the old policy, a surviving gay partner would invariably lose his or her home within a couple of months," Foreman said. "Now, for at least the World Trade Center survivors, there will be some cushion."

ESPA said it would work with other groups to get the Crime Victims Board to extend the policy to the surviving partners of all murder victims.

"For many years it has been clear to anyone paying attention that existing CVB policy was grossly unfair to lesbian and gay surviving partners, said Richard Haymes, executive director of the New York City Gay & Lesbian Anti-Violence Project. "It has always seemed ironic that an agency set up to provide relief for victims would have policies that innately revicitmized people desperately needing assistance. For years, we have to tell the vast majority of surviving same-sex partners of murder victims that assistance to them from CVB would be limited, if available at all. In the aftermath of the horrible attack on the World Trade Center, the inequities in the disbursement of benefits were only sharply crystallized as we attempted to offer assistance to lesbians and gay men who lost their partners in the attack."

Haymes said he hopes the "CVB will ultimately amend its policy to provide equal support to unmarried partners in perpetuity."

A Crime Victim Board spokesperson did not respond to the Blade’s inquiry by presstime.

Empire State Pride Agenda
647 Hudson St.
New York, NY 10014
212-627-0305
www.prideagenda.org

New York City Gay & Lesbian Anti-Violence Project
240 W. 35^th St., Suite 200
New York, NY 10001
212-714-1184
www.avp.org

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This article appeared in the issue of:
October 22, 2001