In this issue:

Recent Workshops
National News
International News
Unmarried Celebrities
Documented
Donate a Postal Scale
Fund Raising has begun

Recent Workshops

In the last month Marshall and Dorian gave workshops in Burlington, VT and Cambridge, MA. In Burlington, the community forum was held in the local library, and the librarians took copies of our resource list and said they planned to order every book on the list for their library! Thanks to Kirsten Isgro for inviting us up and organizing the forum!

It's always wonderful to continue the conversation about the issues facing unmarried people with different groups around the country. We would love to speak in your city or at an upcoming conference you know about! E-mail or call us to discuss the possibilities.

In national news...

NOW Supports Non-Sexist Domestic Partner Plans
Patricia Ireland, the president of the National Organization for Women, had taken a public stance in support of inclusive domestic partner benefits. This means that rather than domestic partner plans that are available only to same-sex couples only, NOW will advocate for such plans to be available to employees without discriminating on the basis of sex or sexual orientation. NOW's stance is thanks to the work of Thomas Coleman of the Spectrum Institute along with a number of people and organizations (including ATMP).


More Employers Considering Domestic Partner Benefits
According to a recent Reuters news story, 6% of employers with 500 or more employees currently offer domestic partner benefits to their employees, and 29% are considering adding these benefits. Of the companies that don't offer the benefits, 56% said it was because no one was interested. The moral of this story is, if you're interested, let your employer know! That's what we did, and one of our employers added the benefits without argument.

In international news...

France Considering Rights for Unmarried Couples
Amidst much controversy, French legislators are preparing to vote on a new legal category, the "civil solidarity pact" (PACS). If passed, this will give unmarried couples (both same-sex and opposite-sex) rights similar to those of married people. The plan stemmed from a campaign to legalize same-sex marriage in France. A vote is set for November 10th.

Unmarried Celebrities

We are collecting a list of famous people who are (or were when they were alive) in long-term unmarried relationships. Here's our list so far (thanks to many of you):
Oprah Winfrey and Stedman Graham
Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins
Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell
Larry Mullen Jr. (of U2) and Ann Acheson
Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy

We're sure there must be more. Make this your next party game, and e-mail us any additions you come up with!

Documented

A group of documentary-makers set up camp in our living room last week to interview us for an upcoming Showtime television documentary on the history of marriage in the 20th century. They also attended the workshop we gave that night at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education, filming some willing attendees. We'll let you know when we hear about the airing of the final product, expected for 1999.

Donate a Postal Scale

If you have a postal scale you can donate, we could put it to good use (imagine the time we could save if we could eliminate our daily trip to the post office)!

Fundraising Has Begun

We have submitted grant proposals to several progressive foundations and plan to apply to others. We welcome any fundraising/grant-writing knowledge or suggestions you may have.