The Dutchess County Respect for Same-Sex Couples Petition

County Legislator Joel Tyner (Clinton/Rhinebeck) sent the letter below on June 10th to his colleagues in the Dutchess County Legislature suggesting that the county delay no longer in recognizing same-sex marriages.

Please email the legislators at their e-addresses below if you agree.

County Legislator Joel Tyner: [email protected]; 876-2488

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To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

From: Joel Tyner [email protected]>

Subject: Colleagues-- Westchester, NYC, Buffalo, Albany, Ithaca, Rochester, Nyack, and Brighton have moved to save local tax dollars by respecting same-sex couples...

Let's make sure that Dutchess County also respects the marriages of same-sex couples
performed in Massachusetts, Canada, and elsewhere...

NYS Comptroller Alan Hevesi stated the following on this issue over two years ago:

"The Institute for Gay and Lesbian Strategic Studies estimates that within
the State of California, even if only a small percentage of individuals living with
partners were to marry, the State would reduce its expenditures on means-tested
public assistance benefits by more than $11.5 million each year. A study performed
in Vermont calculated that even if only 1 percent of same-sex unions in the state
involved someone who received public assistance and who would no longer be eligible
after marriage, the potential savings to the state could equal almost $2 million
over a five-year period. A similar study in New Jersey suggests that savings to
the State budget from the passage of a similar measure could equal between $46 million
and $92 million each year."
[see http://www.osc.state.ny.us/press/releases/mar04/030304b.htm ]

[Think about how much we could save for the taxpayers of Dutchess County this way!]

This week I'll be submitting a resolution for July requesting that our county move
on this; please let me know if you'd like to be on board with this effort...

Joel
876-2488

p.s. Note-- polls do prove that most folks across the state do want this; see just
below...

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From http://www.prideagenda.org/pressreleases/pr-06-08-06.htm ...

Westchester County Recognizes Marriages of Same-Sex Couples
Pride Agenda Applauds Executive Order by County Executive Spano

Press Contacts: Joe Tarver (212) 627-0305 / (917) 604-7509 (cell)

New York City, June 8, 2006 - Westchester County became the latest locality in New
York State to announce that it will fully respect the marriages of same-sex couples
performed in jurisdictions like Canada and elsewhere..

County Executive Andrew J. Spano signed an Executive Order on June 6 putting this
policy in place and announced it last night at a town hall meeting with the county's
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community held in White Plains.

"We applaud County Executive Spano for working to ensure that same-sex couples
who live in Westchester County and have been married in Massachusetts, Canada and
other places are now as legally married in the eyes of the County as a couple who
got a license in New York," said Alan Van Capelle, Executive Director of Empire
State Pride Agenda, New York's statewide LGBT civil rights organization.

In a news release on the Executive Order issued by County Executive Spano, he said,
"We need to value all types of loving, committed relationships. I want to be
sure that all Westchester County services treat all valid marriages the same way."

Westchester County becomes the eighth locality in New York State to pro-actively
affirm that it recognizes out-of-state marriages of same-sex couples, providing
them with all local-based rights and services where marital status is a factor.
Other localities with this policy are Albany, Brighton, Buffalo, Ithaca, New York
City, Nyack and Rochester.

In 2004, New York State Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi recognized out-of-state marriages
of same-sex couples in terms of the New York State and Local Retirement System.
Last year, the City University of New York (CUNY), the nation's largest urban university
system, took a similar action when it provided married benefits to an employee who
married his same-sex partner. Also last year, two Teamster Locals representing workers
at JFK Airport began treating marriages of same-sex couples the same as all other
marriages in terms of retirement benefits and coverage. Allstate, State Farm, Geico
and Electric automobile insurance companies, who together insure about a third of
all drivers in New York State, also now provide the same rates and coverage to married
same-sex couples that they provide to married opposite-sex couples.

Spano's announcement, like all the others, follows Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's
March 2004 opinion that marriages of same-sex couples performed outside the state
should be treated as valid marriages in New York State.

"With County Executive Spano's Executive Order, 9,514,459 of New York State's
18,976,457 people, or more than 50\% of the state's population, now live in local
jurisdictions where same-sex marriage is a legal fact," said Van Capelle. "Given
that Massachusetts has a population of only 6,349,000 people, there are now more
people living in jurisdictions in New York where same-sex marriage has been declared
legal than there are in all of Massachusetts."

The Pride Agenda and local members of the LGBT community worked with the County
Executive's office to issue the Executive Order. The Pride Agenda assisted in the
drafting of the Executive Order by providing information and language used by other
localities in New York that have issued similar policies.

In April, the Pride Agenda released the results of a statewide poll, conducted by
Global Strategy Group, showing that 53\% of New Yorkers now support marriage for
same-sex couples while just 38\% do not. On respecting out-of-state marriages of
same-sex couples as legal marriages in New York, 57\% of New Yorkers support this
to just 36\% that do not.

"More and more, New Yorkers agree that the harmful effects of denying marriage
to our families must end," said Van Capelle. "County Executive Spano's
Executive Order puts Westchester County where a majority of New Yorkers already
are on this issue.

[Founded in 1990, the Empire State Pride Agenda is New York's statewide civil rights
organization committed to achieving full equality and justice for lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender (LGBT) New Yorkers and our families. The Pride Agenda fights
for these objectives by: educating the public, elected officials and policymakers;
building coalitions and mobilizing allies; and, organizing and empowering the LGBT
community. Victories include the enactment of statewide sexual orientation non-discrimination
and hate crimes laws, the repeal of the consensual sodomy statute, and winning over
$18 million in state funds for LGBT health and human services statewide. Other victories
include the passage of local non-discrimination measures in Westchester County,
Nassau County, Suffolk County, and Buffalo; the enactment of domestic partner, transgender
non-discrimination laws in NYC; and, the enactment of a series of state laws, regulations,
and private relief initiatives that provided equal support to LGBT surviving partners
of 9/11 victims. With thousands of supporters, the Pride Agenda has offices in NYC
and Albany and is the largest statewide LGBT organization in the country.]

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From http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060608/NEWS02/606080426/1018
...

"Westchester to Recognize Gays Married Elsewhere"
by Keith Eddings [The Journal News 6/8/06; version of this in yesterday's Poughkeepsie
Journal as well]

WHITE PLAINS В West-chester County will recognize gay marriages performed in states
and countries where they are legal, making it the eighth municipality in New York
В and the first county В to recognize the same-sex unions, County Executive Andrew
Spano said yesterday.

Spano's executive order will guarantee married gay couples the handful of rights
and privileges from county government that heterosexual couples enjoy, including
the right to buy family passes to county parks. But the order will be a mostly symbolic
act that will not require local towns, villages and cities to recognize the marriages,
and it won't provide gay married couples living in the county with new state or
federal rights or privileges, such as the right to file joint tax returns or to
inherit a partner's Social Security benefits.

Nevertheless, Spano received a standing ovation when he read the executive order
at a meeting of local gay groups at the County Center last night, and leading gay
groups cheered the announcement.

"With this move, over half of New York state now lives in jurisdictions that
respect the legal marriages of same-sex couples," said Ross Levi, a spokesman
for Empire State Pride Agenda, a gay lobbying group based in Albany. "We hope
that both the general public and elected officials begin to recognize that the state
does not change for the worse by recognizing loving and committed same-sex couples
who wish to be married."

Spano issued the order on a day when the U.S. Senate, in a procedural vote, killed
a proposal to amend the federal Constitution to ban same-sex marriage for a second
time, and only a week after the issue reached New York's highest court.

On May 31, the state Court of Appeals heard arguments by lawyers for about 40 gay
couples, including two from Westchester, that state laws limiting marriage to heterosexual
couples violate the due process, privacy and equal protection provisions of the
state constitution. A ruling is expected this year.

State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the Democratic candidate for governor, defended
the state in the suit, although he has said he wants the law changed to allow gays
to wed.

In the meantime, Spitzer has said New York should recognize gay marriages that are
legally performed in other states and countries, a question that also is being fought
in the courts.

Massachusetts is the only state that allows gay couples to marry.

A handful of countries also permit gay marriage, including Canada, Spain, the Netherlands
and Belgium.

Spano's executive order puts Westchester on the short list of New York municipalities
that recognize those marriages В which includes Nyack, Buffalo, Albany, Rochester
and New York City В and extends Spano's record on gay rights.

Spano also has made the partners of gay county employees eligible for employee benefits
such as health care, and he worked with the Board of Legislators to establish a
domestic partner registry for gay couples and to extend county human rights protections
to gays.

Last night, standing beside a projection of a map of Westchester within a circle
of the rainbow colors that are a symbol of the gay rights movement, Spano mocked
the failed effort earlier in the day by Senate Republicans to ban gay marriage nationwide.

"I'm as perplexed as you about Washington," Spano told the gathering at
the County Center. "Why they'd want to do a constitutional amendment on gay
marriage В I don't even understand it, so it's hard to say something about it except
that it's ridiculous."

Spano's executive order does not need approval from the county Board of Legislators.

---------------------------------------------

From http://www.osc.state.ny.us/press/releases/mar04/030304b.htm ...

Testimony Of New York State Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi to New York City Council
in Support of the Right to Civil Marriage for Same-Sex Couples in New York State

Albany Phone: (518) 474-4015 Fax:(518) 473-8940
NYC Phone: (212) 681-4825 Fax:(212) 681-4468
Internet: http://www.osc.state.ny.us
E-Mail:[email protected]

FOR RELEASE: Immediately March 3, 2004

Good afternoon. Thank you for inviting me here today to present testimony in support
of civil marriage for same-sex couples.

There are numerous arguments in favor of allowing gays and lesbians to marry in
New York State. Perhaps the most profound is a recognition of our great countryВs
history of moving ever closer toward ending all forms of discrimination, until we
have created a society where all people truly are equal under the law, and are afforded
all of the same benefits and protections. Acknowledging a common interest and belief
in marriage, and expanding marriage laws to include all our citizens, underscores
the importance of the institution of marriage, and testifies to its significance
and value. Marriage contributes to the stability of our communities and allows us
to strengthen and protect our families by giving parents the ability to provide
for the security and financial well-being of each other and of our children.

As you know, I was one of the first publicly elected officials in New York State
to support the right of same-sex couples to marry. But today, as the StateВs fiscal
watchdog, I would like to focus first on the potential economic benefits to New
York State that would accrue from extending the right to civil marriage to same-sex
couples.

New York State is faced with severe budget challenges, and there are many ways in
which our cash-strapped state would benefit financially from widening the pool of
couples eligible for marriage. The most obvious of these is the reduction in public
health care costs and the number of people dependent upon means-tested government
benefits.

Marriage provides access to a spouseВs health, social security, disability and
death
benefits, and the right to alimony and child support, all of which reduce both the
number of people reliant on public assistance, and the number forced to seek medical
care from state and city-funded emergency rooms and community health centers. Additionally,
married couples assume joint responsibility for basic living expenses, debts, and
liabilities, allowing the state to use a partnerВs assets and income to determine
eligibility for state-funded public assistance programs.[1]

The Institute for Gay and Lesbian Strategic Studies estimates that within the State
of California, even if only a small percentage of individuals living with partners
were to marry, the State would reduce its expenditures on means-tested public assistance
benefits by more than $11.5 million each year.[2] A study performed in Vermont calculated
that even if only 1 percent of same-sex unions in the state involved someone who
received public assistance and who would no longer be eligible after marriage, the
potential savings to the state could equal almost $2 million over a five-year period.[3]
A similar study in New Jersey suggests that savings to the State budget from the
passage of a similar measure could equal between $46 million and $92 million each
year.[4]

Providing financial security for the children of same-sex couples would further
reduce the potential burden on the State and City of New York. Children of married
parents have access to child support and alimony, and are eligible for health insurance
coverage and survivorВs benefits from a non-biological parent. All of these benefits
reduce the number of children reliant on various forms of public assistance.
The protections afforded by marriage and divorce laws allow couples to engage in
a division of labor that facilitates career specialization, often resulting in a
higher family income. Without these protections, such as alimony and access to shared
assets, the sacrifice of one partnerВs career for the furtherance of the otherВs
presents a greater challenge. In addition, the pooling of resources facilitated
and encouraged by marriage allows couples to make joint investments and purchases
that might not otherwise be possible. Higher incomes and an increase in investments
and consumer spending will all contribute towards the StateВs fiscal health.[5]

The ability of a greater number of New Yorkers to specialize and advance in a particular
field will also allow us to compete more effectively in the global market. There
is no greater asset in todayВs technology-driven economy than a highly skilled
workforce.
If we are to slow the exodus of jobs from New York State and revive our economy
by attracting business and development, we must do everything possible to attract,
develop, and retain highly skilled, well-trained workers.

In fact, a study prepared for the Software Industry Center at Carnegie Mellon University
suggests that outsourcing jobs to third-world countries is a problem that is not
as serious in the long-term as our failure to attract Вcreative classВ workers
to
the United States. Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Belgium, and the Netherlands, all of
which have either adopted equal marriage or created familial structures mirroring
marriage, have considerable technological capabilities, and continue to succeed
in developing creative talent. The authors of the report credit these countriesВ
values and attitudes with their success in attracting creative, highly educated
workers.[6]

Finally, there is an enormous potential for increased tourism revenue from the passage
of a same-sex marriage bill in New York State. This is particularly true if we are
successful in becoming among the first states in the nation to do so, making us
the recipient of Вfirst-mover advantage.В If other states continue to prohibit
same-sex
marriage, couples from all over the nation will flock to New York to get married,
in many cases inviting family and friends to join them.

A UCLA study found that with the benefit of first-mover advantage, tourism revenue
in California resulting from the passage of a same-sex marriage law could exceed
$4 billion in the five years immediately following legalization. The study was based
on extremely conservative estimates. It assumed the number of gay men and lesbians
in the United States to be somewhere between 1 and 3 percent of the general population,
the rate of marriage among gay men and lesbians to be one third of the rate for
the general population, and an average of only $6,000 of in-state spending from
each marriage. A separate study estimated that passage of a same-sex marriage bill
in Hawaii would generate a boost in tourist revenue of $4.3 billion over a 20-year
period, generating $440 million in state and county tax revenues, thousands of jobs,
and $2.4 billion in household wealth for the stateВs residents.[7]Given these figures,
it is unsurprising to learn that tourism has increased dramatically in Ontario and
British Columbia since the advent of same-sex marriage. Bed-and-breakfasts in Toronto
report a business increase of 15 percent. In Massachusetts, the president of the
Provincetown Business Guild estimates that marriage-related travel could boost business
by as much as 50 percent in Provincetown, following the issuance of marriage licenses
to gay and lesbian couples.[8]

Even without first-mover advantage, New York has a large enough lesbian, gay, bisexual,
and transgender population that significant tourism revenue would be generated from
the influx of friends and families for weddings of in-state couples alone. There
can be no doubt about the appetite for same-sex marriage in New York. A Same-Sex
Wedding Expo in New York City last May attracted over 50 vendorsВincluding American
Express, Citibank, New York Life Insurance, and BloomingdaleВsВand between 600
and
700 attendees. Additional tourism revenue would accrue from tourists who choose
not to wed, but who want to show their support for our efforts to end discrimination
against same-sex couples.

In addition to benefiting the state economy, allowing equal access to marriage would
stabilize families by providing financial and emotional security, conferring legal
protections, and enabling couples to act on each otherВs behalf. Among the 1,049
federal benefits and responsibilities afforded by marriage, in addition to hundreds
more offered by New York, are: hospital visitation rights and the ability to make
medical decisions in the event of a spouse or child becoming sick or disabled; family
medical leave, bereavement leave, and access to a spouseВs health insurance, disability,
and pension benefits; automatic inheritance rights in the case of a spouse dying
intestate; the right to inherit retirement savings tax-free and exemption from state
property tax increases; the ability to give a spouse unlimited gifts without being
taxed; creditor protection of a coupleВs marital home; the right to file joint
tax
returns and obtain joint health, home, and auto insurance policies; family discounts
from employers, banks, insurers and businesses; the legal protections afforded in
the case of a divorce; the right to spousal and child support, child custody, and
visitation rights; the right to sue for wrongful death if a spouse dies as a result
of medical malpractice or negligence; the automatic right to joint parenting, joint
adoption, and joint foster care; and protection from having to testify against oneВs
spouse in court.[9]

All of these rights and responsibilities contribute to the health and well-being
of couples and families. In fact, studies have shown that a happy marriage is the
best protector against illness and premature death. Married people live longer,
have higher incomes and wealth, engage in less risky behaviors, eat more healthily,
and have fewer psychological problems than unmarried people.[10]

Children who grow up in a family environment, loved, protected, and nurtured, become
far more stable and successful as adults than children who grow up without such
benefits, regardless of the sexual orientation of their parents.[11] Twenty yearsВ
worth of studies have shown that there are no notable developmental differences
between children raised by heterosexual parents and children raised by lesbian and
gay parents. For this reason the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychiatric
Association, the American Psychoanalytic Association, and the American Psychological
Association have all issued formal statements supporting equal access to parenting
and adoption for gay men and lesbians.[12]

According to the President of the Connecticut Council of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry,
Dr. Julian Ferholt, В[Same-sex couples] do not differ [from heterosexual couples]
as competent moral adults, as partners in committed relationships, or as parents,
and their children have equally good mental and physical development, including
sexual-orientation and identity.В[13]

In fact, the only risk factor that is unique to the children of same-sex parents
is the discrimination and stigma that they and their parents experience. The diminished
social status that such arbitrary exclusion entails causes the same degree of suffering
experienced by individuals who face racial, ethnic, or other forms of discrimination.
Dr. Ferholt writes, ВA child who knows that his parents are excluded from marriage
experiences himself as part of a family that is not fully legitimate, and tends
to think of himself as a less than legitimate person.В[14] And unfortunately, many
of the most important needs of children of same-sex partners do remain unmet, because
access to health insurance coverage and other benefits are only available to married
couples.

Not all of the benefits associated with marriage are tangible, however. Marriage
is a public affirmation of love with well-recognized social significance, which
is perceived by many to be a commitment, of the highest order, of one person to
another.

Nationwide, gay and lesbian couples and families are living with the same love and
commitment as heterosexual couples. They raise kids, share homes, and support and
provide for each other. But they are doing so without the legal protections and
support afforded to other Americans. They are left vulnerable as they try to piece
together a patchwork of legal and financial documents to protect each other and
their children, yet continue to remain at risk because many of the benefits from
marriage cannot be gained by other means.

Extending the freedom to marry to same-sex couples will protect these families,
and in so doing will reaffirm the strength, moral standing, and importance of marriage
in our society. Promoting the support and security of all families strengthens our
communities, and has the potential to provide significant financial benefits to
all New Yorkers, the State and the City.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

[1] Lee Badgett, Bradley Sears, Suzanne Goldberg, Supporting Families, Saving Funds:
A Fiscal Analysis of New JerseyВs Domestic Partnership Act, December 2003; Jennifer
Gerarda Brown, Competitive Federalism and the Legislative Incentives To Recognize
Same-Sex Marriage, Southern California Law Revenue, May 1995; R. Bradley Sears,
Senate Appropriations Committee Testimony on AB 205, August 18, 2003; Christina
MГller, An Economic Analysis of Same-Sex Marriage, UniversitГt Hamburg, Institute
fГr Recht und Гkonomik

[2] R. Bradley Sears, Senate Appropriations Committee Testimony on AB 205, August
18, 2003

[3] M. V. Lee Badgett, The Fiscal Impact on the State of Vermont of Allowing Same-sex
Couples to Marry, October 1998

[4] Lee Badgett, Bradley Sears, Suzanne Goldberg, Supporting Families, Saving Funds:
A Fiscal Analysis of New JerseyВs Domestic Partnership Act, December 2003

[5] Lambda Legal web site, Denying Access To Marriage Harms Families, http://www.lambdalegal.org/cgi-bin/iowa/documents/record?record=1086;
Christina MГller, An Economic Analysis of Same-Sex Marriage, UniversitГt Hamburg,
Institute fГr Recht und Гkonomik

[6] Ibid.

[7] Jennifer Gerarda Brown, Competitive Federalism and the Legislative Incentives
To Recognize Same-Sex Marriage, Southern California Law Revenue, May 1995

[8] Sarah Robertson, Mining the Gold In Gay Nuptials, The New York Times, Dec. 19,
2003

[9] Why Marriage Equality Matters, Lambda Legal web site, http://www.lambdalegal.org/cgi-bin/iowa/documents/record?record=873;
Marriage Equality USA, Get the Facts on Marriage, Marriage Equality web site,

[10] Marriage Equality USA, Get the Facts on Marriage

[11] Dr. Robert Zavoski, President-elect of the Connecticut Chapter of the American
Academy of Pediatrics, Hezekiah Beardsley Connecticut Chapter newsletter, Dec. 9,
2002

[12] Connecticut General Assembly Office of Legislative Research, Backgrounder,
October 25, 2002

[13] Dr. Julian Ferholt, testimony before the Members of the Judiciary Committee
of the Connecticut General Assembly, Dec. 8, 2002

[14] Ibid.