December 18, 1992 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

Page 7

Pennsylvania couple denied common-law marriage status

by Eric Dellaplane and Mike Crawmer

Altoona, Pa.--Two Altoona men who were refused in their attempt to file a statement of common-law marriage in Blair County are asking the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund for assistance in the matter.

Blair County Deputy Prothonotary (clerk of courts) Carol Newman told Out, a Pittsburgh gay paper, that her office did not accept the couple's statement. "There's no basis under state law for common-law marriage," she said. Newman also said County Solicitor Michael Shurazey advised the office not to accept it.

When told by a reporter that a gay couple in Washington County, Pa. had successfully filed a statement of common-law marriage on April 14, Newman said the woman at that office did so only to avoid controversy.

State Solicitor Bob Weinert, who last spring advised Joseph Carney and Devin Michaels of East Washington to draw up their statement of marriage and have it notarized before two witnesses, also admitted that the Washington County office probably filed the marriage statement only to avoid controversy. Although he said he has been advising county clerks of court to accept such common-law statements, Weinert said not all offices are doing so.

The common-law marriage statement submitted by Carney and Michaels was filed in Washington County Orphan's Court under "miscellaneous."

The statement is "useless and futile" and "isn't worth anything," Weinert said. "I told them if they wanted to file it, they had the right to do it, then it would be up to

a person's interpretation," he said. "The validity thereof is questionable."

Weinert likened the filing of the statement to that of filing a family tree. "What's the significance of it? he asked.

Dennis Biancuzzo, 31, and Jeff Kost, 32, attempted to file the marriage statement August 6 in Altoona. Biancuzzo said Blair County Prothonotary Jerry Stearn "is a white heterosexual male who dominates this office" and claimed he is using his own moral values to pass judgement on himself and Kost.

Deputy Nello Giorgetti at the Allegheny County Register of Wills Office said he too has been asked to file similar statements of marriage by couples of the same gender. He does not accept the statements and cited two commonwealth Superior Court rulings: an older DeSanto case and Constant A. v. Paul C.A., an appellate court case argued in 1983 and handed down in 1985.

According to Weinert, the state rejected a marriage license application made by a same-gender couple eight or nine years ago. When the couple appealed the case in court, the state ruled against them.

Attorney Jonathan Robeson, who assisted the Fairness Campaign in its successful attempt to uphold Pittsburgh's gay rights ordinance in 1991, agreed with Weinert's assessment that a common-law marriage statement is probably worthless because "there is no legal set-up in the state for common law marriage.'

Biancuzzo and Kost had contacted the Philadelphia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, but were told the chapter was too small to handle such a case, according to Biancuzzo.

Biancuzzo moved to Altoona last spring after living for many years in the Washington, D.C. area. He is currently co-vice

chairman of the Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Task Force of Blair County and active in several other gay-supportive groups.

"We both feel very strongly about going forward with this," Biancuzzo said. Both of the men's families are "extremely supportive," he said, but noted that reaction from the local gay community has been generally negative. Although some people have acknowledged they would support the

couple, Biancuzzo said he has heard many stories through third parties that many gay people in the community are afraid of being seen in public with Biancuzzo and Kost.

Concerning his openness, Biancuzzo said, "In Altoona I've felt no need to change that. Many people (in the gay community) have a hard time dealing with that."

Reprinted with permission from Out, Pittsburgh.

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