Archive for August, 2010
Free webinar about joining AtMP’s Board of Directors
That you’re reading this blog suggests you care about fairness for unmarried people. Maybe you’ve flirted with the idea of getting more involved. Today is the day to get serious: Become a candidate for our volunteer board of directors!
| Leadership Webinar Dates: |
We’re seeking strategic thinkers, fearless fundraisers, wise advisors, savvy spokespersons and people who have experience with nonprofit boards. If you’d like to be a candidate, or just want to learn more, please join a free Leadership Webinar!
In an hour or less, the Leadership Webinar will cover the legal responsibilities of all boards as well as details about AtMP’s board and its work, with plenty of opportunities to ask questions. To participate, all youl need is a phone. You can follow the visuals onilne or print them out in advance.
We’re offering the same webinar at two different times to accommodate potential candidates from around the nation. Please click on a preferred date to register: Friday Aug 20, noon ET, or Wednesday Aug 25, 9 pm ET.
If neither date works for you, please contact us and we’ll arrange another way for you to get the information and ask questions.
In case you’ like to read about AtMP and its board in advance, here are some links to important background information on the web:
mission statement | public policy priorities | annual reports | about the board
Share: 
inside AtMP
Comments 0
Aug 19th, 2010 by Nicky
A close look at today’s families
Book review: Families As They Really Are edited by Barbara J. Risman
BY MICHAEL ORTIZ
Many of us harbor this sort of normative image of the “ideal” American family as a married, co-parental, child-producing, child-rearing, cohabiting, heterosexual, democratic, working or middle class unit which assumes an essential nature of its own and can prevail through policy and law. However, the strong message that Barbara J. Risman sends out in Families As They Really Are is that contemporary families come in all different forms, shapes, and sizes; outright defying any notion that non-traditional families represent some sort of social crisis. Various types of families have come to be defined as their members see fit; thus making for greater human connectivity and qualitative social bonds.
Families As They Really Are is an anthology consisting of 40 essays written by members of the Council on Contemporary Families with the intention of exploring families as they truly exist, why they exist in the ways that they do, and how the needs of these families can best be met. The purpose of this book, as stated by Risman, is to make a genuine difference in peoples’ lives by getting them to understand the circumstances in which they find themselves so that they may live their lives to the fullest extent possible. By breaking through all stereotypes and boundaries on personal, institutional, and state levels, families will indeed be able to exist and flourish as they really are.
The anthology is divided into five sections that focus specifically on certain aspects of family such as family conceptions, family creation, family resilience, and family relationships. What’s great about the book is that Risman begins part one by explaining scientific, causal, and correlative theories and approaches as they relate to the observed world around us; thus setting the foundation for how the anthology is constructed. For example, chapter three studies the correlation between unwed, single parent households and behavioral problems in children, but then explains how single parenthood is not the cause of children’s behavioral issues. In this way, we can begin to study and account for the social structure that encapsulates all familial phenomena.
Part two predominantly talks about the historical emergence of American family systems, marriage, gender, motherhood, and child socialization as they relate to developing economic production, exchange, land ownership, and patriarchal ideological structure. Chapter eight in particular explores the legal ramifications for changing family structures, and shows how new family forms challenge legal conceptualizations and traditional definitions of biologically-based families. This section also includes great work on interracial marriage and discusses childhood as a period of development that is not necessarily universal to all children, but rather, is socially constructed as it relates to existing social conditions.
Parts three and four generally focus on family quality in its many forms, as opposed to the promotion of one particular nuclear family structure as the ideal pinnacle. Chapter thirteen does a phenomenal job in studying cohabitation as “the most common form of co-residential romantic relationships” among U.S. households. It suggests that the state as an ideological apparatus has real problems viewing non-martial cohabitation as being legitimate. However, further studies in this section show that whether families are married or cohabiting, positive parental effects lead to better cognitive development of children and an overall positive household atmosphere. These sections cover an extensive amount of information beginning with the study of immigrant, gay and lesbian, low income, and divorced families, but ends up driving home the point that public policy reflects a real anxiety about sexual freedom, ability of people to marry, and redefined family forms.
Finally, part five is devoted exclusively to gender. In chapter 30, Risman does excellent work examining just how gender behavior plays out amongst middle school children. She shows how gender policing among children is really a form of socialization leading to the hegemonic reproduction of “normal” families. In this manner, dominant concepts of family are internalized. This section also touches on women’s involvement in the labor force, men’s involvement in the household, and domestic violence as an expression of patriarchal power in the family.
Families As They Really Are does a superb job in explaining the history of American families, illustrating diverse family forms, examining the intricate details of family interaction, and assessing the legal policies that directly affect all families. Risman arms her readers with the tools they need to dissect, analyze, and understand race, class, gender, and family formation. Those looking for ample evidence that family diversity is a good thing, will feel encouraged by what they discover in the pages of this fantastic anthology.
This book happens to be a great source for students and academics alike seeing as Risman also includes in depth review questions and exercises at the end of each section. Another great feature of the book is that Risman includes newspaper and media articles between certain essays. Hence, adding to the wealth of information already devoted to each topic. Once readers get through the entire text, they very well might feel as if they are connected to all types of families mentioned in the book; leading to the conclusion that we are all indeed part of one large human family.
Michael Ortiz is a Sociology grad student at CUNY Brooklyn College where he is currently working on a project studying conceptions of race amongst college students.
Share:
book reviews, statistics
Comments 0
Aug 18th, 2010 by Jess
Neighbors, New Yorkers
The New York Times New Old Age blog offered another revealing story about unmarried caring relationships, and how important they are to our health. In brief, a not-young married couple provides food, company and transportation to their older neighbors. They are more important and reliable to their neighbors’ daily well-being than are their neighbors’ blood relatives.
Reading the comments on this story, I was fascinated by how many people said the neighbor deserves not only thanks and chocolate but also money to cover expenses (I agree). I was also glad one reader pointed out “… that the person who is so selfless may start demanding a decision-making role in determining how, when, where or what health care is given ….” The reader saw this as a negative “danger,” which of course it could be. But it also could be a positive, desirable situation to have a knowledgeable neighbor caregiver who takes part in health care decision making. The challenge is to permit the positive and prevent the negative.
Judging from the original post and the comments, people are comfortable with the idea that the neighbor caregiver has “already driven ailing neighbors to the emergency room several times.” People should not then be comfortable with the idea that hospital staff could stop the neighbor at the door and prevent her from visiting the elderly patient whom she delivered. This is the kind of situation that AtMP’s comment on the proposed federal visitation rule tries to address. There’s still time to submit your comment – please do!
So far a New York college radio station seems to be the only media outlet covering the visitation rule. WFUV plans to air a piece about it early Monday morning. We did a 10-minute interview with them today, but of course the coverage might last just a few seconds. Listen in if you can!
Share:
health care
Comments 0
Aug 17th, 2010 by Nicky
Dangers of marriage as policy ideal
AtMP has seen important progress on unmarried people’s rights since its founding in 1998. But now I worry that the trend might be starting to slip into reverse. Two recent court decisions – both hailed as gay rights victories – actually highlight the dangers of using marriage as an exclusive public policy ideal, instead of valuing all individuals, caring relationships and families.
While celebrating that California’s Prop 8 was overturned and same-sex couples may regain the right to marry there, our friends Rachel and Bella DePaulo point out that the judge and the winning lawyers elevated marriage and disparaged alternatives to marriage, to an extraordinary and unnecessary extent.
With far less fanfare, Arizona ruled that same-sex domestic partners of state employees could have their health benefits back, after taking them away last year. However, local news reports that
The ruling does not affect unmarried heterosexual couples who also gained coverage as part of a change in state policy pushed through by the administration of former Gov. Janet Napolitano. Absent some change in policy — or a different lawsuit — they will lose their domestic partner benefits at the end of this year. Attorney Dan Barr said the lawsuit did not cover these “straight’’ unmarried workers because they are in a different legal situation: Unlike gays, they can get married to obtain benefits.
In essence, both court cases say “if you can get married, you should, and the burden’s on you if you don’t.” We see parallels in the private sector: both Google and Syracuse University are reimbursing income taxes their employees pay on health benefits for same-sex but not different-sex partners.
Today I had a very pleasant and helpful conversation with an attorney at Lambda Legal. I learned that lawyers have a hard time making an equal protection claim for different-sex couples. To paraphrase, at least two courts have ruled that ‘choosing not to drive a Cadillac does not give someone the right to drive a Pinto.’
I’m not a lawyer, but my instinct says that a winning case would have to demonstrate that being domestic partners or staying single are better options than marriage for a significant group of people. We’d have to prove that marriage is the Pinto, not the Cadillac. Obviously, many AtMP members believe this is true for themselves. Can we build a legal argument to that effect? Can we build one that overcomes the lens of traditionalism through which judges and business leaders see the world?
Share:
beyond same-sex marriage, health care
Comments 9
Aug 11th, 2010 by Nicky
Visitation victory within reach!
Back in April, President Obama introduced a hospital visitation memo, to ensure visitation rights for all patients. While the proposed rule is a great attempt, it still needs improvement in four key ways:
It should insure visitation protection
1) for legally appointed health care agents,
2) without discrimination on the basis of marital/relationship status,
3) for emergency patients, and
4) for patients who have not designated visitors and/or completed advanced directives.
We spent considerable time working on our public comment, incorporating some of AtMP’s members’ traumatic hospital visitation stories. It is now available to read and provide inspiration – we urge YOU to tell the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) your story! The deadline to submit a comment is August 27 – don’t wait, show your support now!
Share:
health care
Comments 0
Aug 6th, 2010 by Jess
