NEWS RELEASE
Thursday, March 16, 2006

EQUALITY MARYLAND
Contact: Dan Furmansky, Executive Director
Phone: 301-587-7500
Cell: 301-461-4900
Email: dan@equalitymaryland.org

REPORT: COUPLES FACE SEVERE OBSTACLES OBTAINING SUBSTITUTE MARRIAGE BENEFITS

‘Patchwork’ legal solutions fail to provide basic family protections

SILVER SPRING – The lack of marriage benefits for same-sex couples in Maryland forces families to create a “patchwork” of legal protections that come nowhere close to guaranteeing the family’s sovereignty will be honored, according to a new report issued today.

“Marriage Inequality in the State of Maryland” meticulously details the legal obstacles couples must face in an attempt to secure some of the most basic protections of marriage, like the right to make medical decisions for an incapacitated spouse, basic property ownership rights and inheritance rights. The report was researched and published by Equality Maryland, the state’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, and was made possible by a re-grant from the Human Rights Campaign via the Tides Foundation.

“This report exposes the common myth that the protections of marriage are available to anyone through legal paperwork,” said Dan Furmansky, executive director of Equality Maryland. “Denying same-sex couples the ability to legally marry hurts families in very concrete ways, and no amount of maneuvering with a lawyer can come close to the peace of mind that marriage provides.”

The result of the inability to secure common protections can be devastating and are detailed throughout “Marriage Inequality in the State of Maryland.” For example:

Drs. Donna Bourassa and Patty Perillo had been together for several years when Donna was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. As an employee of the state of Maryland, for 15 years, Patty could not insure Donna on her health plan, so Donna was forced to work throughout her illness or risk losing health benefits. When Donna died at the age of 49, Patty was ineligible for bereavement leave. And, when Donna’s last will and testament left Patty the house they had shared, the State initially assessed $30,000 of inheritance tax against the value of the house because same-sex partners are not entitled to exemptions from inheritance taxes for bequests of property to a spouse.

If Donna and Patty’s legal rights as a couple were recognized, Donna would not have had to work through her terminal illness – and Patty could have taken bereavement leave and would have enjoyed the financial and inheritance protections afforded a grieving spouse.

“Donna's death was a profound loss,” Perillo said. “Grief is a painful human experience and mine was complicated because I was not eligible for state defined leave from my job to deal with the loss. I was also forced to contend with the prospect of losing our home and had to engage in an extended legal battle in an attempt to reduce the inheritance tax assessed. No one should ever have to face such hardship in the process of grieving the loss of a loved one.”

“Marriage Inequality in the State of Maryland” documents that without the ability to secure a marriage license, same-sex couples have no automatic legal right to:

- Take Family and Medical leave to care for a sick partner
- Ride in an ambulance with a partner
- Visit a partner in a nursing home or hospital
- Receive Social Security benefits in the event of the death of a partner
- Sponsor a foreign-born partner to stay in the country
- Inherit jointly owned property without incurring crippling tax penalties
- Roll a partner’s pension into their own
- Make burial decisions
- Have the security of continued insurance coverage after the death of a spouse
- Take advantage of social services provided to help families cope with catastrophe, poverty, homelessness, or abandonment

Several private attorneys, the American Civil Liberties Union and a project at the Georgetown University Law Center contributed to the report, which found more than 425 provisions in Maryland code that unambiguously discriminate against same-sex couples, who are unable to legally marry or classify their partner as a member of their immediate family under current law.

To download a copy of the report, visit:
www.equalitymaryland.org/marriage/marriage_inequality_in_maryland.pdf

For a summary of the key protections visit:
www.equalitymaryland.org/marriage/marriage_inequality_chart.pdf