Times Wire Reports
After moviegoers have a laugh at Adam Sandler and Kevin James pretending to be a gay couple in the new film "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry," the American Civil Liberties Union is urging them to visit www.10couples.org to find out what it's really like to be denied legal protections for your family.
The Web site, developed by the nonprofit ad agency Public Interest and the ACLU, features videos of 10 same-sex couples who explain the difficulties of trying to protect their families without access to the many protections that come automatically through marriage.
In "Chuck and Larry," which opens today, firefighter Larry (Kevin James), after the death of his wife, enters into a domestic partnership with his coworker friend Chuck (Adam Sandler) to guarantee that his children will receive his pension if he dies.
Larry, in a difficult situation, decides the needs of his family outweigh the difficulty and potential danger of entering into a fraudulent partnership.
The film is broadly comic and treats lightly a serious issue: families are put at risk when they lack legal protections for their relationships. While, in the movie, Larry has the option -- albeit a fraudulent one -- of domestic partnership to receive at least some benefits (though still unequal to those of marriage), the truth is that only 10 states out of 50 offer significant legal protections for same-sex relationships.
"We hope that people realize that, while the film is funny, the idea of protections for same-sex relationships isn't a joke," said Matt Coles, Director of the ACLU's Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Project.
Chuck and Larry, meet Steve and Mark, documentary filmmakers living in Charleston, S. C., who have been together for more than 15 years, and are featured on 10Couples. When Steve suffered a near-fatal aneurysm in 1998, Mark found he was barred from making medical decisions for his partner.
Meet Octavia and Deborah, of Detroit, Mich., partners for more than 10 years. Deborah, who had no health insurance, developed a blood clot in her leg that put her in the hospital for a week. Octavia was insured, but could not add her partner to her plan. The couple is still paying off medical bills.
Meet Dick and Bob, of Palm Beach, Fla., who met as freshman in college in 1955 and have been partners ever since. Despite this, they are unable to cover each other with their Social Security or pensions, and they worry they will be separated if they become sick and are forced to enter a nursing home.
Seven more couples also are featured in their own short videos.
The campaign was conceived and produced by Public Interest, a nonprofit ad agency and production company dedicated to addressing critical social issues. The 10 videos also are available on YouTube.com.
