New York - Representatives from the New York City Gay and Lesbian
Anti-Violence Project (AVP) lauded an executive order issued late yesterday
by Governor George Pataki requiring the New York State Crime Victims Board
(CVB) to pay equal benefits to unmarried surviving partners of those killed
in the wake of the devastating September 11 attack on the World Trade
Center.
Until the governor's action, unmarried survivors, including both registered
and unregistered lesbian and gay partners, were only eligible for
replacement of household support if the deceased partner contributed at
least 75% of household income. After advocacy by AVP and the Empire State
Pride Agenda, that level had recently been lowered to 50%, but both groups
believed that that modification represented only a small step in remedying
inequities for lesbian and gay surviving partners, and continued their push
for equal benefits.
"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, AVP's executive director. "It has always seemed ironic that
an agency set up to provide relief for victims would have policies that
innately revictimized people desperately needing its assistance. For years,
we have had 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 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," continued Haymes.
"This change in policy will have a tremendously positive effect on my
clients who are trying to balance grieving for their loved ones, holding out
hope against hope that some survivors will miraculously be pulled from the
rubble, putting their lives back together, and figuring out how they will
pay the bills," said Basil Lucas, AVP's Bias-related Violence Victim
Advocate. "With the Governor sanctioning this change in CVB policy, those
clients can now see that New York believes their loss to be as significant
as that of others," concluded Lucas.
"As the Governor stated last Thursday, the people rescued on September 11th
didn't care about the demographics of their rescuers and the rescuers were
as equally unconcerned about the race, sexual orientation, gender, age, etc.
of whomever they were able to bring to safety. At a time when all Americans
are so generously contributing to relief efforts, I doubt if any have
stipulated that they want less of their donation to go to lesbian and gay
survivors. While it is comforting to know that the primary source of relief
in New York State will now respond fairly to lesbian and gay partners, one
can only hope that all of the other relief organizations will follow suit
and provide benefits that are equal to those being provided to married
spouses," said Haymes. "The Red Cross at least, has told us that they will
indeed provide support to eligible same sex partners, and we hope that the
other relief agencies will follow their and the Governor's lead on this.
Additionally, we hope that the CVB will ultimately amend its policy to
provide equal support to unmarried partners in perpetuity," concluded
Haymes.