Doubts remain on Mass. marriage policies
Ann Rostow, PlanetOut Nework

The prospects for non-resident same-sex marriages in Massachusetts seemed to widen somewhat on Tuesday, when Daniel Winslow, the top legal aide to Gov. Mitt Romney, indicated that clerks may be able to accept a sworn oath rather than a proof of residency from out-of-state couples.

Previously, Gov. Romney said that a 1913 marriage law prohibits anyone from marrying in the state if they live in a state where their marriage would be illegal. He then announced that clerks would therefore be required to check gay couples for proof of Massachusetts residency.

In an Associated Press dispatch, Winslow delivered a mixed message, repeating that clerks will be obliged to obtain some kind of proof that same-sex couples reside, or are planning to reside, in the Bay State, before issuing marriage licenses. Several paragraphs later, however, Winslow told the wire service that the Department of Health will advise clerks that while tangible proof is preferable, a couple's sworn oath is also legal.

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GLBTS and Aging: Testimony at Council
by Terri Worman and Perry Wiggins

Following are excerpts from LGBT seniors advocates Terri Worman and Perry Wiggins’ testimony at the Chicago Department on Aging’s April 28 Public Hearings for the 2005-2007 Area Plan on Aging. The revised Area Plan on Aging will be available for review during the public comment period from May 26 to June 16, and written comments can be submitted up until 4 p.m. June 16. Worman and Perry Wiggins are co-conveners of the Chicago Task Force on LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) Aging.
The Chicago Task Force on LGBT Aging was first convened in January 1998 as part of Horizons’ Mature Adult Program of Center on Halsted. The Task Force includes professionals in the field of aging services and advocacy; service providers in the LGBT community; and members of the senior LGBT community. Member agencies include the Secretary of State’s Office, Chicago Department of Public Health, AARP Illinois, Council for Jewish Elderly, the Center on Halsted, Heartland Alliance, Howard Brown Health Center and the Chicago Department on Aging.

We are here this morning to urge that the Area Plan for the Chicago Department on Aging currently under consideration include recognition of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender seniors as a group with unique and specific needs, and whose community, though not geographically well-defined, is worthy of support and nurture.
As noted in the report Outing Age, published in 2001, “lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) elders are among the most invisible of all Americans. Little is known about LGBT elders because of the widespread failure of governmental and academic researchers to include questions about sexual orientation or gender identity in studies of the aged. Legal and policy frameworks which have traditionally excluded LGBT people engender social and economic consequences that deny LGBT elders access to financial resources and community support networks.”