Executive Order

Executive Order  No. 341: Providing for non-discriminatory visitation privileges of inmates, patients, and residents of state facilities

Date: 09/23/1992
Issuer: William F. Weld
Mass Register: No. 697

Table of Contents

WHEREAS, Chapter 151B of the Massachusetts General Laws establishes the obligation of the Commonwealth to protect its citizens from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation; and

WHEREAS, all institutions and agencies of the Commonwealth are bound by this same obligation to protect citizens' civil rights, especially during the course of activities related to the official business of the Commonwealth;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, William F. Weld, Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, by virtue of the authority vested in me as Supreme Executive Magistrate, do hereby order as follows:

  1. For purposes of this executive order, "relationship of mutual support" means a relationship between two individuals, each unmarried and competent to contract, characterized by mutual caring and emotional support; an agreement to share basic living expenses; a sharing of living quarters and an intent to do so indefinitely; a mutual assumption of responsibility for each other's welfare; and a mutual expectation that the relationship is exclusive and will endure over time.
  2. The Commissioners of the Department of Corrections, the Department of Public Health, the Department of Mental Health and the Department of Mental Retardation shall promulgate regulations not later than November 1, 1992, to ensure that, at all state and county prisons, jails, hospitals or other residential facilities, the visitation privileges for persons having a relationship of mutual support with inmates, patients, or residents are the same as the visitation privileges established for spouses at each facility.
  3. As a condition of visitation privileges being extended to persons having a relationship of mutual support with an inmate, patient, or resident, the inmate, patient or resident must certify to the official in charge of the facility, where necessary, the existence of his or her relationship of mutual support.

Given at the Executive Chamber in Boston this 23rd day of September in the year of our lord one thousand nine hundred and ninety-two, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and seventeenth.

William F. Weld, Governor

Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Michael Joseph Connolly

Secretary of the Commonwealth

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