by Mary N. Cameli

About the author: Mary N. Cameli is an attorney in Chicago.

The status of family, with all of its attendant benefits and burdens, is currently available only to persons related through blood or marriage. Providing opportunities to obtain family status to persons who live outside of traditional families is both equitable and worthwhile in advancing the goals traditionalists promote. For gay men and lesbian women, the problem of family status is exacerbated by public policy, and by statutes denying them marriage and criminalizing their sexual behavior....

Family Benefits

Family is a status given special accord in our society. Legal rights and responsibilities attach between family members. For example, rights of inheritance are spelled out in the law, and in the absence of a will, family members receive...