From Family Diversity to Spectrum Institute to AASP: |
Our Accomplishments, Our Current Activities, and Your Future
The Family Diversity Project initiated the first law school class in the nation on "Rights of Domestic Partners." It was taught for several years at the University of Southern California Law Center by the project's executive director, attorney Thomas F. Coleman. The creation of the Los Angeles City Task Force on Family Diversity was also stimulated by the Family Diversity Project. The Task Force was the first local government study of public policy and contemporary family life in a pluralistic society. The Task Force issued a landmark report in 1988 which made over 100 recommendations on how the city of Los Angeles could improve the quality of life for all of its diverse families. The Family Diversity Project also participated in landmark court cases. For example, it filed an amicus curiae brief in the case of Braschi v. Stahl Associates. In that case, New York's highest court ruled that a "family" may include people who function as a family unit even though they are not related by blood or marriage. The Family Diversity Project went through a legal transformation in 1987 when it became a tax-exempt nonprofit corporation known as Spectrum Institute. Spectrum Institute focused its research, education, and advocacy efforts on three goals: promoting respect for family diversity, securing legal and economic protections for domestic partners, and eliminating marital status discrimination. The issues involved personal privacy for consenting adults, and equitable treatment of unmarried adults as citizens, employees, tenants, and consumers. Spectrum Institute worked closely with the media. Its projects and cases were mentioned by major newspapers. Its representatives appeared on television programs such as Nightline, Today Show, CBS Evening News, CNN News, and ABC World News Tonight. It assisted KCET Public Television with the production of a 30-minute documentary on "Family Diversity." Spectrum Institute helped public officials as they conducted policy studies involving the rights of single people and domestic partners. For example, Spectrum assisted with the production of policy reports issued by the California Legislature, California Insurance Commissioner, and Los Angeles City Attorney. Spectrum filed amicus curiae briefs in landmark test cases in appellate courts in Alaska, California, Illinois, Michigan, and Georgia. Spectrum Institute also assisted businesses and labor unions. It helped AARP conduct a study on the needs of older adults living in nontraditional households. Over the years, the Family Diversity Project and Spectrum Institute have helped to change the way the public views single people and the way unmarried adults are treated by government agencies and private businesses. Our efforts have helped to cause domestic partner benefits programs to emerge. When we began in 1985, there were only two municipalities and one private business with such benefits programs. Today there are hundreds. When we began in 1985, the legal rights of unmarried adults had been largely ignored by the courts. Today, there are favorable precedents by several state supreme courts. But there is still a lingering stigma associated with being unmarried in America. Marital status discrimination remains a pervasive problem which threatens the rights of the 80 million unmarried adults in the United States. We have come to realize that the only way to create effective and lasting change is to harness the collective power of single people. Individual voices are too weak to be heard by corporate and government leaders. But collectively, the power of millions of unmarried adults can cause attitudes to change and policies to be revised in the workplace, in the marketplace, and in government circles. It is with this awareness -- the need for collective and united action -- that Spectrum Institute has made another transformation. We have changed our name to the American Association for Single People and we are inviting unmarried adults to become members of AASP by making a tax-deductible contribution of $10 or more. We hope to do for single people and domestic partners what AARP has done for seniors, namely, to harness the collective power of millions of people to insure that their views are considered by those in positions of power and that members of the group are treated with respect and fairness. It is in this spirit, and with our history of accomplishments in mind, that we invite you to become a member of AASP. Your support will help us create a better future.
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