Courier blowing smoke in LetterLand? - Declines to post Hervey piece

A long letter from Joan Hervey, local gay activist, appeared as a Speaking Out piece in the print edition of Wednesday's Courier, as I noted in yesterday's CLIPS. I emailed Joan early yesterday morning, telling her it was not online and suggested they might put it up if she contacted the editor. She did, and I am reprinting the exchange below, as well as the text of her letter, which she kindly supplied. (Remember, first email is the bottom one.) I find it interesting that Joan got the response she did when on Sunday, March 12, the Courier published a Speaking Out piece by former mayor Rick Taylor, "Dear Mr. President: Help this disabled veteran," which still can be seen online here. Go figure.

From: Courier News - Letters to the editor [mailto:cnletter@c-n.com]
Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2006 1:05 PM
To: Plainfield Area Equality
Subject: Re: THANKS SO MUCH FOR PRINTING: Domestic Partnership inPlainfield

At this time only smaller versions of Letters to the Editor are reserved for online space. Speaking Out letters will only appear in the paper.

-----Original Message-----
From: "Plainfield Area Equality"
To: ,
Cc: "'Plainfield Area Equality'"
Date: Wed, 29 Mar 2006 12:17:26 -0500
Subject: THANKS SO MUCH FOR PRINTING: Domestic Partnership in Plainfield
Hi, Thanks SO much for making my letter a Speaking Out piece! I really appreciate it! Would you please do me a favor and post it to your website too? It will get MUCH wider exposure if it goes on the Net. Thanks again, and if I can ever help you out, please just let me know.
joan

Plainfield took small but vital step to equality

By JOAN E. HERVEY

I would like to thank the Courier News for your editorials supporting the Plainfield City Council’s passing of Domestic Partnership benefits for employees of the city. The Courier has been very supportive of equal rights and fairness for our LGBTI citizens.

However, one point of clarification is in order. In a couple of editorials, you have stated that Domestic Partnership offers “most of the legal benefits of marriage”. While for now, it is the best we have, it is far less than true equality.

The most obvious shortcoming is that each county, municipality and school board has to agree to grant the benefits, sometimes very reluctantly. If someone works for an entity that has not yet passed the resolution, they have to go to that city council, freeholder board, or school board, and petition them to comply with the law, and grant the benefits. You may remember the Laurel Hester case in Ocean County. How degrading and insulting was it for that poor dying woman to have to beg and plead for the benefits that she had worked 24 years for, like any other employee? She was repeatedly rebuffed by a cold and unfeeling Freeholder board, until finally the pressure was so great, from the LGBTI community, from friends and co-workers of Lt. Hester, and then from their state legislators, that they capitulated, just a couple of weeks before she died.

Further, unless one happens to be employed by a progressive and forward thinking company, it is necessary for any employee to go and request personally that their employer change their insurance policy to one that will provide the benefits. So, basically, one has to go, hat in hand, and say “I’m gay, and I’d like to protect my partner. Please sir, may I have some benefits?”. It is degrading and dehumanizing under the best of circumstances. And the value of the benefit for the partner is subject to federal income tax, unlike the benefits to a spouse.

The rights themselves are limited to the following: hospital visitation, medical decisions, funeral decisions, limited rights of inheritance, and the medical and pension benefits, IF they are agreed to by the employer. Better than nothing, but we are aware of a number of cases where a hospital has refused to recognize the partnership and not allow one partner in to see their dying companion. And in at least two cases that I know of, the funeral director refused to allow the partner of the deceased to make the final arrangements. Again, it’s always up to someone else to recognize and grant the benefits.

All that being said, I do want to thank the Plainfield City Council, for their courage and commitment to fairness, and most especially Councilman Rashid Burney, for taking the lead on this resolution. I would also like to thank our mayor, Sharon Robinson-Briggs, for her support, which she has demonstrated from the beginning.

I am very proud that Plainfield has been added to the list of municipalities that support equal civil rights for all her citizens. But in the bigger picture, it is just an incremental step towards true equality.

Joan E. Hervey is the founder of Plainfield Area Equality

-- Dan Damon

Keywords: Domestic partner benefits
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