In the United States of America, same-sex marriage has been legal in all states, Washington, D.C., as well as all U.S. territories except American Samoa, but not on Indian lands, since June 26, 2015, when the United States Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that state-level bans on same-sex marriage are unconstitutional.
~Wikipedia~
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The untold story of the improbable campaign that finally tipped the U.S. Supreme Court.
May 18, 1970, Jack Baker and Michael McConnell walked into a courthouse in Minneapolis, paid $10, and applied for a marriage license. The county clerk, Gerald Nelson, refused to give it to them. Obviously, he told them, marriage was for people of the opposite sex; it was silly to think otherwise.
Baker, a law student, didn’t agree. He and McConnell, a librarian, had met at a Halloween party in Oklahoma in 1966, shortly after Baker was pushed out of the Air Force for his sexuality. From the beginning, the men were committed to one another. In 1967, Baker proposed that they move in together. McConnell replied that he wanted to get married—really, legally married. The idea struck even Baker as odd at first, but he promised to find a way and decided to go to law school to figure it out.
Last week, June 26, 2015, the high court reversed itself and declared that gays could marry nationwide.
“Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in his sweeping decision in Obergefell v. Hodges.
“They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.”
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The plaintiffs’ arguments in Obergefell were strikingly similar to those Baker made back in the 1970’s. And the Constitution has not changed since Baker made his challenge (save for the ratification of the Twenty-Seventh Amendment, on congressional salaries).
But the high court’s view of the legitimacy and constitutionality of same-sex marriage changed radically: In the span of 43 years, the notion had gone from ridiculous to constitutionally mandated.
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One who is strongly partial to one’s own group, religion, race, or politics and is intolerant of those who differ.
French, excessively religious person, religiously intolerant person, from Old French, Norman person, excessively religious person, of unknown origin.
~Word History~
The ultimate origin of the word bigot is unknown. When bigot first appears in Old French, it is as an insulting term for a Norman. A colorful story is often told about the origin of the term with Rollo, the pagan Viking conqueror who received Normandy as a fief from Charles III of France in 911. Rollo converted to Christianity for the occasion, but it is said that he refused to complete his oath of fealty to the king by kissing the king’s feet and said Ne se bi got, “Never, by God!” in a mishmash of Old French and a Germanic language.
This bi got then became a term of abuse for the Normans. This story is certainly false, but some scholars have proposed that Old French bigot did indeed originate as a reference to be Gode! — the Old and early Middle English equivalent of Modern English by God!, perhaps as a phrase that some Normans picked up in their English possessions in England and then used back in France.
Later, in the 1400’s, the French word bigot appears as a term of abuse for a person who is excessively religious. It is not clear, however, that this word bigot, “excessively religious person,” is in fact the direct descendant of the Old French slur that was applied to the Normans.
Rather, this bigot may come directly from Middle English bi God, “by God,” or an equivalent phrase in one of the Germanic relatives of English such as German bei Gott or Dutch bij God.
But even this is uncertain.
In any case, English borrowed bigot from French with the sense “religious hypocrite” in the early 17th century. In English, the term also came to be applied to persons who hold stubbornly to any system of beliefs, and by extension, persons who are intolerant of those that differ from them in any way.
I have been in a very committed relationship for 19 years now.
We both met while in college and when we were still very young and inexperienced. Life happened and we were separated for 24 years.
We reconnected in 1996 and have been together since. There was never any doubt about where we wanted to be once we reconnected.
It was where we wanted to be when life happened.
Life stops for no one.
Therefore we are not getting any younger. The wear and tear of our years are catching up and our bodies are telling us so. The things that concerned us when young have taken a back seat to the things that are concerning us now as senior citizens.
The issues concerning us now are not only physical.
They also have a legal background.
I never thought that this would be a reality in my lifetime.
Hence, the demand to have the same rights as heterosexual marriages.
Let’s face it – most of us don’t get married because of the legal recognition and benefits of the institution. We get married because we love each other and want to express that love. But, like it or not, the federal government uses marital status to determine lots of benefits, rights and privileges that aren’t afforded to those who are prohibited from marrying the person they love. In fact, as of 2004, there were 1,138 such benefits, rights and privileges specifically defining or including marital status as a factor contained within the United States Code.
(Jenn and Santos)
Category 1
Social Security and Related Programs, Housing, and Food Stamps
This category includes the major federal health and welfare programs, particularly those considered entitlements, such as Social Security retirement and disability benefits, food stamps, welfare, and Medicare and Medicaid. Most of these provisions are found in Title 42 of the United States Code, Public Health and Welfare; food stamp legislation is in Title 7, Agriculture.
Category 2
Veterans’ Benefits
Veterans’ benefits, which are codified in Title 38 of the United States Code, include pensions, indemnity compensation for service-connected deaths, medical care, nursing home care, right to burial in veterans’ cemeteries, educational assistance, and housing. Husbands or wives of veterans have many rights and privileges by virtue of the marital relationship.
Category 3
Taxes
While the distinction between married and unmarried status is pervasive in federal tax law, terms such as “husband,” “wife,” or “married” are not defined. However, marital status figures in federal tax law in provisions as basic as those giving married taxpayers the option to file joint or separate income tax returns. It is also seen in the related provisions prescribing different tax consequences, depending on whether a taxpayer is married filing jointly, married filing separately, unmarried but the head of a household, or unmarried and not the head of a household.
Category 4
Federal Civilian and Military Service Benefits
This category includes statutory provisions dealing with current and retired federal officers and employees, members of the Armed Forces, elected officials, and judges, in which marital status is a factor. Typically these provisions address the various health, leave, retirement, survivor, and insurance benefits provided by the United States to those in federal service and their families.
Category 5
Employment Benefits and Related Statutory Provisions
Marital status comes into play in many different ways in federal laws relating to employment in the private sector. Most provisions appear in Title 29 of the United States Code, Labor. However, others are in Title 30, Mineral Lands and Mining; Title 33, Navigation and Navigable Waters; and Title 45, Railroads. This category includes laws that address the rights of employees under employer-sponsored employee benefit plans; that provide for continuation of employer-sponsored health benefits after events like the death or divorce of the employee; and that give employees the right to unpaid leave in order to care for a seriously ill spouse. In addition, Congress has extended special benefits in connection with certain occupations, like mining and public safety.
Category 6
Immigration, Naturalization, and Aliens
This category includes federal statutory provisions governing the conditions under which non-citizens may enter and remain in the United States, be deported, or become citizens. Most are found in Title 8, Aliens and Nationality. The law gives special consideration to spouses of immigrant and non-immigrant aliens in a wide variety of circumstances. Under immigration law, aliens may receive special status by virtue of their employment, and that treatment may extend to their spouses. Also, spouses of aliens granted asylum can be given the same status if they accompany or join their spouses.
Category 7
Indians
The indigenous peoples of the United States have long had a special legal relationship with the federal government through treaties and laws that are classified to Title 25, Indians. Various laws set out the rights to tribal property of “white” men marrying “Indian” women, or of “Indian” women marrying “white” men. The law also outlines the descent and distribution rights for Indians’ property. In addition, there are laws pertaining to health care eligibility for Indians and spouses and reimbursement of travel expenses of spouses and candidates seeking positions in the Indian Health Service.
Category 8
Trade, Commerce, and Intellectual Property
This category includes provisions concerning foreign or domestic business and commerce, in the following titles of the United States Code: Bankruptcy, Title 11; Banks and Banking, Title 12; Commerce and Trade, Title 15; Copyrights, Title 17; and Customs Duties, Title 19. This category also includes the National Housing Act (rights of mortgage borrowers); the Consumer Credit Protection Act (governs wage garnishment); and the Copyright Act (spousal copyright renewal and termination rights).
Category 9
Financial Disclosure and Conflict Of Interest
Federal law imposes obligations on members of Congress, employees or officers of the federal government, and members of the boards of directors of some government-related or government chartered entities, to prevent actual or apparent conflicts of interest. These individuals are required to disclose publicly certain gifts, interests, and transactions. Many of these requirements, which are found in 16 different titles of the United States Code, apply also to the individual’s spouse.
Category 10
Crimes and Family Violence
This category includes laws that implicate marriage in connection with criminal justice or family violence. The nature of these provisions varies greatly. Some deal with spouses as victims of crimes, others with spouses as perpetrators. These laws are found primarily in Title 18, Crimes and Criminal Procedure, but some statutory provisions, dealing with crime prevention and family violence, are in Title 42, Public Health and Welfare.
Category 11
Loans, Guarantees, and Payments in Agriculture
Under many federal loan programs, a spouse’s income, business interests, or assets are taken into account for purposes of determining a person’s eligibility to participate in the program. In other instances, marital status is a factor in determining the amount of federal assistance to which a person is entitled or the repayment schedule. This category includes education loan programs, housing loan programs for veterans, and provisions governing agricultural price supports and loan programs that are affected by the spousal relationship.
Category 12
Federal Natural Resources and Related Statutory Provision
Federal law gives special rights to spouses in connection with a variety of transactions involving federal lands and other federal property. These transactions include purchase and sale of land by the federal government and lease by the government of water and mineral rights.
Category 13
Miscellaneous Statutory Provisions
This category comprises federal statutory provisions that do not fit readily in any of the other 12 categories. Federal provisions that prohibit discrimination on the basis of marital status are included in this category. This category also includes various patriotic societies chartered in federal law, such as the Veterans of Foreign Wars or the Gold Star Wives of America.
This is why same-sex couples need your help.
We need equal access to the law in order to protect our families, just like you!
THIS IS WHAT WE FIGHT FOR … THIS IS WHAT WE DEMAND
As I gathered this information and trolled through the internet, I’ve learned quite a bit. There are so many benefits; much more than the ones I listed on my own.
Here’s my short list:
Social Security benefits
Inheritance tax
Power of attorney
Hospital visitation rights
Medical insurance benefits
Last will and testament
Combined tax returns
Car insurance
Money managing/Finances
Pension benefits
Deed mortgage/Secure loan
I listed eleven benefits … come to find out I had left 1,127 out!
Maureen Hennessey lived with the love of her life, Mary Beth McIntyre, from 1984 until Mary Beth’s death on May 18, 2013, at the age of 55. Together they raised three children in Philadelphia. While Mary Beth was suffering the physical and emotional pain of end stage cancer, she had the additional burden of worrying about how Maureen would manage financially after she was gone.
Because their marriage is not recognized in Pennsylvania, Maureen must pay a 15 percent inheritance tax on half of their shared property, including their home. And unless their marriage is recognized in Pennsylvania before Maureen turns 65, Maureen will not be eligible to receive Mary Beth’s Social Security benefits.
It Is What It Is 