Opponents tout plans to extend rights to gays

Same-sex marriage opponents said yesterday that they will file legislation providing hospital visitation and other rights to gay couples that would be offered even if the state enacts a proposed ban on same-sex marriage.

State Representative Philip Travis, a Rehoboth Democrat and a leading opponent of same-sex marriage in the Legislature, said yesterday that he will file a bill this session to grant ''reciprocal benefits" to gay couples and those who cannot marry legally in Massachusetts.

Travis and other opponents of same-sex marriage discussed the bill on the eve of today's Constitutional Convention, when lawmakers will take up a proposed amendment for the 2006 ballot that would ban same-sex marriage but allow gay couples to join in civil unions. That amendment is expected to fail, but gay-marriage opponents are now focusing their attention on a proposal to ban same-sex marriage, without the alternative of civil unions, aimed for the 2008 ballot.

Travis said the reciprocal benefits bill is meant to respond to supporters of same-sex marriage, who contend that a ban on marriage would take away rights from gay couples. ''All the things that the other side has complained about will be taken away and will be covered by legislative action," Travis said.

The bill aims to grant gay couples and people in other family relationships -- such as two elderly siblings living together -- the rights they would have under marriage, including transfer-of-property rights, healthcare proxy rights, and burial rights.

Kris Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, said the bill is modeled after a similar initiative in Hawaii that went into law in the late 1990s.

''Reciprocal benefits is not based on sexual orientation," Mineau said. ''There are a number of those relationships, and we want to make sure that the playing field is level to meet the needs of all citizens."

But Arline Isaacson, cochairwoman of the Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus, called the benefits legislation ''a sham."

The proposal, she said last night, is an attempt by opponents of same-sex marriage ''to make themselves look less mean-spirited, but they know, like we know, that the only way to access the 1,400 legal protections under legal marriage is with a marriage license. There is no other way."

Supporters of same-sex marriage, she said, are focused on preserving those legal protections. ''And we won't be distracted by their silly proposal for these other few rights instead of that," she said.

During a press conference, Mineau and other leading opponents of same-sex marriage, including a representative of the Massachusetts Catholic Conference and African-American clergy leaders, spoke out against the proposed 2006 constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage and authorize same-sex civil unions. They oppose the amendment because it would allow civil unions.

''Traditional marriage celebrates a unique and special relationship, which is indispensable to the strength of the family," Ed Saunders, executive director of the Massachusetts Catholic Conference, said in a statement. He said that if the 2006 amendment were adopted, ''then Catholic and other institutions could be forced to adopt practices that would violate their principles."

Material from State House News Service was used in this report.