Blood Relatives Play Second Fiddle to 'Domestic Partners' Under New NY Law
by Jody Brown and Bill Fancher
February 14, 2006
(AgapePress) - - Family advocates are saying a new law in the State of New York has damaged the role of the traditional family. At the same time, one pro-homosexual lobby considers it a victory for their specific definition of families.
Earlier this month, New York Governor George Pataki signed into law a measure that gives authority over burial rights to same-sex partners of the deceased -- above the wishes of family and blood relatives. The executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda believes the Republican governor did the right thing.
"For too long in New York, same-sex partners who live together and care for each other have been legal strangers when one of them dies," says Alan Van Capelle. "This is the first time in [state] law [that] same-sex relationships have been given priority over a blood relative. This is victory for our families."
Bob Knight of the Culture and Family Institute, however, says while that might seem compassionate on the surface, family is family.
"Family has been given preference for a reason," says the pro-family leader. "And to say that grieving parents, for instance, just have no rights over what happens to their child's body is a perversion of the law." Not only that, says Knight, "it's another surrender to the gay lobby -- and it's another notch down from putting the family first in our nation's laws."
Van Capelle's comments seem to confirm Knight's concern. While applauding enactment of the new law, the Pride Agenda leader says his group wants more.
"We believe New York is ready for a more comprehensive approach to providing the rights and protections of marriage to our families," Van Capelle states. "We will be working this year on making that happen -- and that includes calling for [same-sex] marriage."
Peter LaBarbera, director of the Illinois Family Institute (IFI), echoes Knight's remarks. "We're moving faster and faster to the idea that marriage and family [as they have] traditionally been known mean nothing," LaBarbera says, "and these new artificial constructs are taking precedence. It's very dangerous."
The IFI director also seems a bit surprised by the fact that Pataki signed the bill. "If a Republican governor can assert the primacy of [so-called] homosexual 'families' over blood relatives, it's a pretty scary sign," he says.
