Good thing she wasn't a police officer in Moscow. Her partner would have really been SOL with our city council. <br> <br> _DJA<br><br><b><i>Tom Hansen <thansen@moscow.com></i></b> wrote:<blockquote class="replbq" style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; padding-left: 5px;"> >From today's (March 8, 2006) Spokesman Review with a spcial thanks to<br>Christopher Ott -<br><br>---------------------------------------------------------------------<br><br>Gay rights are simply equal rights <br><br>March 8, 2006<br><br>Lt. Laurel Hester, a 49-year-old police officer from New Jersey, died of<br>cancer in February after 23 years on the job. Cancer was not her only<br>battle. She waged a long legal fight to pass $13,000 worth of pension<br>benefits to her surviving partner. Without it, she feared her partner could<br>lose the home they shared.<br><br>Hester won her case at the eleventh hour. County officials with the power to<br>let her do it finally !
gave in
after a deathbed plea and the publicity it<br>brought.<br><br>But Hester's need to fight so hard in the last days of her life shows how<br>high the odds can be stacked against gay couples. All too often we have to<br>fight for basic protections that others take for granted, and we are forced<br>to do it in the middle of life's most difficult and tragic situations.<br> <br>Hester's case also shows how shallow the arguments from opponents of gay<br>rights really are.<br><br>Antigay activists like to argue that they oppose "special rights for<br>homosexuals." But how is providing a same-sex partner the benefits you<br>earned considered "special rights" if you are allowed to do the same thing<br>for an opposite-sex partner?<br><br>Opponents of equality like to argue that they are defending the institution<br>of marriage. But whose marriage is protected by putting obstacles in the way<br>of people who are suffering and dying, and who just want to take care of the<br>people they
love?<br><br>And when you get down to it, how many straight people really want to see<br>such heartless discrimination continue in the name of defending their<br>marriages?<br><br>If our country is going to stay true to the ideal that everyone should be<br>treated equally, there is only one way forward. The laws and restrictions<br>that leave gay and lesbian couples out in the cold have to be swept away at<br>every level.<br><br>Offering health insurance coverage to the partners of gay and lesbian<br>employees is a small step forward.<br><br>Civil unions, which offer a few of the protections available to married<br>couples, are at least a move in the right direction.<br><br>But the ultimate answer is complete legal equality for all couples, whether<br>gay or straight, and that means the right to marry. Gay couples who take on<br>the responsibilities of marriage also deserve the protections of marriage.<br><br>Lt. Hester protected the public for 23 years, and the public shou!
ld
protect<br>the rights of people like her. These are not special rights. They are equal<br>rights.<br><br>---------------------------------------------------------------------<br><br>Seeya round town, Moscow.<br><br>Tom Hansen<br>Moscow, Idaho<br><br>"Gays and lesbians stood up for civil rights in Montgomery, Selma, in<br>Albany, Georgia and St. Augustine, Florida, and many other campaigns of the<br>Civil Rights Movement. Many of these courageous men and women were fighting<br>for my freedom at a time when they could find few voices for their own, and<br>I salute their contributions."<br><br>- Coretta Scott King (March 30, 1998)<br><br><br><br>_____________________________________________________<br> List services made available by First Step Internet, <br> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994. <br> http://www.fsr.net <br>
mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com<br>ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ<br></blockquote><br><p>
<hr size=1>Yahoo! Mail<br>
Bring photos to life! <a href="http://pa.yahoo.com/*http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=39174/*http://photomail.mail.yahoo.com">New PhotoMail </a> makes sharing a breeze. <p>
<hr size=1>Yahoo! Mail<br>
Bring photos to life! <a href="http://pa.yahoo.com/*http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=39174/*http://photomail.mail.yahoo.com">New PhotoMail </a> makes sharing a breeze.