National Gay & Lesbian Task Force Press Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Ivy Young (202) 332-6483 Ron.DeVrou@f70.n109.z1.fidonet.org [The following op ed is by Ivy Young, director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's Families Project.] The District of Columbia and the Traditional Values Agenda Washington, D.C., May 7, 1992...It is no surprise, in this election year, to find President George Bush giving ear to a handful of conservative evangelical ministers on pilgrimage to the White House with their special agenda, like prayer beads, in hand. The fundamentalists' demand to the President was that this administration better get on the right path, denounce lesbian and gay Americans in general and vociferously oppose the newly enacted District of Columbia domestic partner law in particular. The new DC law is in imminent danger, and it will take a concerted effort by lesbian and gay activists around the country to help it survive. The right-wing preachers, along with the Eagle Forum's Phyllis Schlafley, spent a full third of their recent meeting with Bush damning the new DC law and misrepresenting its content. The District's domestic partner bill (officially titled the Health Care Benefits Expansion Act) will, according to the fundamentalists, lead to the ruination of the American family and give gays and lesbians the right to marry. Those pronouncements are as far from the truth as those fundamentalist preachers are from God. In its wisdom, the City Council of the District of Columbia passed the Health Care Benefits Extension Act of 1992 by a vote of ten to one. This measure will allow municipal employees to pay for health coverage for persons with whom they reside and with whom they share the commitment and responsibilities of daily life. That could mean a lesbian or gay couple, a grandmother caring for her grandchildren, an unmarried heterosexual couple, two single parents sharing a home with their children, or two disabled persons in an independent living situation. There is a provision in the law that allows couples throughout the city to register as domestic partners, and grants hospital visitation rights to those partners. The DC law also provides a tax incentive for private sector employers who want to provide health insurance protection to the non-traditional family members of employees. At a time when 37 million Americans face the horrors of having no health insurance and hospital emergency rooms nation-wide are collapsing from the burden of being primary health care providers, the DC Council's action is practical, wise and caring. In more than twenty other jurisdictions around the nation legislators have passed laws recognizing the diversity of American family life today. And, as in ten of those cities, elected officials of the District of Columbia have decided to do more than pay lip service to the health care crisis faced by millions of American citizens. Far from being a "special right" as touted by the bias-filled evangelicals, the DC measure ensures that all city employees will be treated fairly with equal pay and benefits for equal work. Non-discrimination in the work place is not a special right. It is not a special right to sit by the bedside of a dying loved one. These are just the simple, unadorned, but imperative rights that come with being citizens of the District of Columbia or any other city in this nation. The DC law attempts to ensure that no one's citizenship rights are diminished by discrimination. Unfortunately for the District of Columbia, every law passed by the duly-elected representatives of the people of this city must be scrutinized by Congress, where DC residents have only one non-voting Delegate. If members of the House or Senate object to the provisions of any DC law, they can dismantle or completely override that law. So it was with the District's sodomy repeal law in the early 1980's. Pressured by the Moral Majority, Congress negated the District's attempt to erase an antiquated law. Now the District's Health Care Benefits Expansion Act, the domestic partner law, is on the chopping block. There is a nation-wide effort by right-wing bigots to destroy the new law. Pat Robertson's 700 Club made it a featured item on a recent broadcast, and the Catholic Archdiocese is already making the lobbying rounds in Congress. The new DC law provides the first opportunity for House and Senate members to express their opinions on domestic partner legislation. If the voices of bigoted fundamentalists are the only ones heard by federal legislators, then the District's law is doomed. It's imperative that lesbian and gay activists everywhere act now and tell their members of Congress to leave DC legislative affairs to the District's elected officials. People of good conscience must send Capitol Hill the message that they support the Benefits Expansion Act and the District of Columbia's right to self-governance and self-determination. Members of the House of Representatives can be reached by calling (202) 225-3121; the Senate number is (202) 224-3121.