Nearly all the extra costs that gay couples face would be erased if the federal government legalized same-sex marriage. One exception is the cost of having biological children, but we felt it was appropriate to include this given our goal of outlining every cost gay couples incur that heterosexual couples may not.
New York Times - The High Price of Being a Gay Couple
I can tell you that my family isn't the average. We've already paid far more than the best case, just in the 6 years that we've been together in this country.
But it doesn't stop at the money cost.
I haven't ready the court decision, I'm only taking the plaintiff's word for it, but a woman who was suing a hospital in Florida for not allowing her to visit her dying legal domestic partner in the hospital just had her case thrown out. Her partner died, while she stood in the next room being told that since the women weren't related, she wouldn't be allowed in. Since her partner collapsed outside their hotel room, and their power of attorney paperwork was in the hotel room, it wasn't available for her at the hospital.
Read the Langbehn-Pond family blog
And let's not forget what happens when a spouse dies. The woman in the video below wasn't allowed to make funeral arrangements for her spouse after she was killed in a flood.
And then there's my case. I make a good salary. I pay over $30k a year in taxes. My boyfriend, based on his work experience and education, would be in the $45-50k/year salary range, and in line to pay his own fair share of taxes. If we were a straight couple, he'd already be working. Since we're not, we're still wondering how much longer we can stay. IF he can find a job by April 1, we have the ability for him to stay here until April 1, 2011. If he can't, we're going to have to leave in 2010.
I'm not going to sit here and tell you that you should love the gays. I'm not even going to tell you that you should be ok with the gays. I am going to ask that when given the opportunity, you choose to either favor bills that would give gays equal protection under the law or at least stop and think about the many ways that you are affecting the lives of law abiding fellow Americans every time you decide to give your support to measures that seek to keep gay people in second class citizen status.
-Andy
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