This AP story saddened me:
Former Rep. Gerry Studds, the first openly gay member of Congress, was married to another man in Massachusetts at the time of his death, but the federal government will not pay death benefits to his spouse.
Studds married Dean Hara in 2004 after gay marriage was legalized in Massachusetts. But Hara will not be eligible to receive any portion of Studds' estimated $114,337 annual pension because the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act bars the federal government from recognizing Studds' marriage.
And then this graf pissed me off:
Under federal law, pensions can be denied only to lawmakers' same-sex partners and people convicted of espionage or treason, Graves said.
Yup. Gay people are equivalent to enemies of the state, in some peoples' book. And in U.S. law.
My brother has set up a complicated "trust fund" of some kind just so that his partner can inherit his money and their house if he dies first. They've only been together for 25 years.....
Posted by: tizzie | October 19, 2006 at 08:26 AM
Yeah, wouldn't it just be easier to stop being bigoted and let people make solid, legal, lifelong commitments to those they love?
Posted by: Vidiot | October 19, 2006 at 01:49 PM