From: Hrccomm@aol.com Date: Thu, 2 Nov 1995 14:22:36 -0500 Subject: HRC Condems Congressional Vote to Repeal DC Domestic Partnership Act _________________________________________________________________ NEWS from the Human Rights Campaign 1101 14th Street NW Washington, DC 20005 email: communications@hrcusa.org WWW: http://www.hrcusa.org _________________________________________________________________ FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Thursday, November 2, 1995 HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN CONDEMNS CONGRESSIONAL VOTE TO REPEAL D.C. DOMESTIC PARTNERS ACT In Targeting Gays, Lawmakers Revoke Hospital Visitation Rights, Access to Health Benefits for Disabled, Elderly, and Gay Partners in Local Families SEND MESSAGES TO YOUR REPRESENTATIVES THROUGH HRC's WWW SITE http://www.hrcusa.org OUR ACTION CENTER MAKES SENDING IMPORTANT MESSAGES FAST AND EASY Washington -- The U. S. House of Representatives voted yesterday to repeal a local District of Columbia law allowing hospital visitation rights and equal access to health benefits for two people living together as a family for more than six months. By a vote of 249 to 172, the House approved an amendment to the District of Columbia appropriations bill revoking D.C. Law 9-114, the District's Health Care Benefits Expansion Act. The amendment was offered by Rep. John Hostettler (R-Ind.). In voting to revoke the law, House members repeatedly condemned the fact that the law does not exclude lesbian and gay partners. The targeted law allows two Washington, D.C. citizens who live together and care for each other in the same household for more than six months to register as domestic partners, permitting them hospital visitation rights. It also allows domestic partners of city employees to purchase health insurance at their own private expense. The primary beneficiaries of the domestic partners law are the elderly and people with disabilities who cannot live alone, and their care providers. "This is a clear example of how anti-gay extremism hurts everyone," said Human Rights Campaign Executive Director Elizabeth Birch. "Politicians who purport to champion 'local control' and 'family values' have now revoked this local law that costs the taxpayers nothing and benefits local families, senior citizens, and people with disabilities -- all because some of the people the law helps are gay. In the midst of an overzealous dismantling of Medicare and Medicaid, this Congress has once again gone too far in imposing the views of anti-gay extremists on the rest of the country -- even at the expense of the most basic human right to visit a loved one in the hospital." "For a House that talks about family values, this was an incredibly anti-family vote," added Birch. "Denying hospital visitation rights to two people who live together and care for each other is about as mean-spirited as you can get." The Human Rights Campaign will continue to fight this action as the process moves forward. The Human Rights Campaign, the country's largest national lesbian and gay political organization, envisions an America where lesbian and gay people are ensured of their basic equal rights -- and can be open, honest, and safe at home, at work, and in the community. - 30 -