Next Tuesday, I have the pleasure of interviewing Professor John Culhane, co-author with Carrie Stone, of Same-Sex Legal Kit for Dummies. As a pastor, I found the read incredibly helpful. This interview will be available on our FamilyScholars Conversations Podcast channel and we’d love to address any questions you might have. Submit your questions in the comment section, and we’ll see what we can do to incorporate them into the discussion!
Categories: General
This might be unhelpfully general, Amy, but as someone who is (gay) married in the state of Massachusetts, I’m curious if there is anything — aside from the whole filing taxes snarl — that my wife and I should be aware of in terms of the dissonance between state and federal laws (while DOMA remains in effect).
Thanks so much for doing this interview!
I’m not sure if he can help with this question, but.
I am older and therefore think about things like retirement.
Two of my gay friends recently got married after 28 years together. Normally couples who have been married for over 10 years can get Social Security benefits based on either their own income or their husband or wife’s income. Can we do something so that people who were not legally allowed to marry but have been living a married couple life for 10 years can get this benefit?
This isn’t a question, but I think it could be informative to address the misconception that same-sex couples can “just” write contracts giving them all of the rights, privileges, and benefits of marriage.
I suppose many same-sex couples probably know that already as it is part of many of our lived experiences, but many opponents of same-sex marriage seem not to know this.
Anyway, it sounds like an interesting interview, and Culhane’s book looks like a good resource for same-sex couples who don’t have the benefit of default, fallback rules that married heterosexual couples have via state and federal recognition of marriage.
I guess the other big concern I have comes from being a mother. What can a couple do to make sure that if they break up, both partners will support a child and one partner won’t deprive the other of custody?
What do you do about different state laws?
And Diane, you bring up the perfect example of the type of marriage benefit that same-sex couples cannot contract for.
Suze Orman actually wrote an article about this very topic a couple days ago!
What are the top needs of same-sex couples that can only be met with marriage?
*The topic I was referring to above, in case it’s not clear, is Social Security benefits.
fannie: “This isn’t a question, but I think it could be informative to address the misconception that same-sex couples can ‘just’ write contracts giving them all of the rights, privileges, and benefits of marriage.”
Not only is that not possible to do, but state law in Virginia and Wisconsin expressly prohibit that from being done (and having legal standing).
annajcook: “I’m curious if there is anything — aside from the whole filing taxes snarl — that my wife and I should be aware of in terms of the dissonance between state and federal laws (while DOMA remains in effect).”
I second this question! My family’s been navigating the tax-filing quandaries for years now, but we just got completely blindsided when the University of California system (which employs one of my mothers) refused to accepted their joint state tax return in lieu of a federal one for proof of marriage (they changed their mind but it was a difficult week until then since their marriage certificate was mislaid which is why they were using tax returns in the first place). Is there any useful pattern to where state-level recognition beats out the federal ban or is everything just arbitrary? Assuming it’s the former, what are the domains within which same-sex/gender couples have to worry about federal documentation not just superceding but totally eclipsing state-level marriage licenses?
@Fannie says “Suze Orman actually wrote an article about this very topic a couple days ago!”
Interesting article. Too bad the author makes a blatant error when she writes “If the federal government recognized same-sex marriage, then when one of us dies our assets would seamlessly transfer free of tax to the survivor. That’s a basic right that every heterosexual married couple has.”
Transferring assets tax-free is not a ‘right’ but, rather, a subsidy from the government. Tax breaks are one of the many fiscal benefits married couples are awarded.
“[T]ax exemptions and tax deductibility are a form of subsidy that is administered through the tax system.” Regan v. Taxation With Representation, 461 U.S. 540, 544 (1983)
I disagree with this:
“Transferring assets tax-free is not a ‘right’ but, rather, a subsidy from the government. Tax breaks are one of the many fiscal benefits married couples are awarded.”
This is an idea that is going around a lot now. A tax break is not a “subsidy.” Your money does not belong to the government. Tax breaks are just taking less money from someone for some reason.
Subsidies are giving someone money or paying their bills for them.
Anyhow, it seems that a lot of the things same-sex couples can’t contract for on their own have to do with taxes, Social Security, and employer-based benefits like health insurance. Immigration also falls into that category.
I would like to know if same-sex couples can simply adopt a child together, or if the laws are more complicated than that.