Take this guy's story, reported by HRC.org. Who does he think he is?

Trying to find out if his partner is alive or dead? Come ON!

We all know that only opposite sex couples are deserving of that kind of information!

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Eric Breidenbaugh knew something was wrong.

His partner and his partner's parents were all missing – hours overdue from a family flight aboard a small private plane.

Eric called his local airport, near Pinellas Park, Florida, to see if they had any information. They did, but they wouldn't give it to him. They said he was "not an actual family member," so they couldn't tell him whether his partner was alive or dead.

He searched the TV news, where he soon saw footage of the plane he himself had ridden in many times. That was how he found out that his life partner of six years, Joseph Bellamy, had been killed with his parents in a plane crash.

It's simply wrong that GLBT Americans should be treated like second-class citizens, denied the right to care for their loved ones.

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I couldn't agree more.
Thanks, HRC, for another reminder of exactly what we are fighting for.
-F814

Totally depends...

If the airline had a history of not telling noin-family members (gay or straight), than this is a non-story...

It's standard procedure to not reveal issues like this until their "next of kin" is notified...That's not an issue of sexual orientaton...

I can imagine a woman whose been the boyfriend of the guy for the last 5 years receiving the same response...

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Jesus Was A Liberal

If a certain course of action makes the mouth-breathers furious, then that’s a good policy. – The Practical Environmentalist

So "marriage" is the only answer? What about a "egairram"? It worked for Yagmi. LOL.

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Yawn.. You are a boring old man... things happen for a reason...

I respectfully disagree.

Regardless of options, you work with what you have. If the precedent is that no one is told anything until the next of kin is notified, then that is the system in place. Even if SSM was legal, do you think they would just give that information over the phone? They would probably ask for proof of kinship.

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If SSM were in place he would probably have been the next of kin. How was he supposed to work with the fact that he had no legal way to become his partner's next of kin? (rhetorical question, BTW)
Maybe. Maybe not. But the article does not say that anyone said that they cannot give out information over the phone. What they said was that they could not give it out because he was "not an actual family member."

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Jesus Was A Liberal

If a certain course of action makes the mouth-breathers furious, then that’s a good policy. – The Practical Environmentalist

The people who give out information are going by their company rules. If they gave info to someone and then got sued they would get fired.
There needs to be a federal law recognizing gay/lesbian partnership. Call it something else besides marriage if you like, to clarify things for some who can't get over the word marriage. The law should state that for all purposes of next of kin type matters and incidents, the persons A and B are hereafter, till a contract of anullment or decision of desolution comes forth from the court, two individuals who are legally and morally bound to each other.
Gee, I would have made a good congressman.

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What this "totally depends" upon is if a spouse called up to find out about his/her spouse, and they refused to tell him/her, THEN you would have a point.

It does not depend on that at all. Since SSM is not yet recognized in that state, then the comparison is to a male/female dating relationship... not a marriage.

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some days you're the dog, some days you're the hydrant

http://www.marchforbabies.com/chuck725 ... helping babies born prematurely and with birth defects