Posted on 05/05/2005 12:30:32 PM PDT by Mark
Same-sex couples still losing out
By Jasmyne Cannick Guest Columnist
"In other words, if you're a two-working family, like a lot of families are here in America, and two people working in your family, and the spouse dies early -- before 62, for example -- all of the money that the spouse has put into the system is held there, and then when the other spouse retires, he or she gets to choose the benefits from his or her own work or the other spouse's benefits, whichever is higher, but not both. See what I'm saying? Somebody who's worked all their life, the money they put into the system just goes away. It seems unfair to me."
--President George W. Bush, April 28, 2005
I agree with the president. It seems unfair to me also that a family that has worked hard to provide for their loved ones could lose their money upon the death of a spouse. However, what Bush neglected to mention was that his example was, of course, a heterosexual family, and that millions of gay and lesbian couples are faced with this dilemma everyday.
As a black lesbian, I feel even more conflicted, because Social Security also affects the stability of millions of African-Americans who are more likely to depend on the system after retiring. In Bush's recent press conference, he proposed a system where low-income workers' benefits would grow faster than for those who are more wealthy. Seems fair enough to me. After all, families who enjoy the benefit of being wealthy are less likely to ever have to depend on Social Security in the first place.
However, where does that leave me and millions like me? People who work hard our entire lives to provide for our families while paying money into a system that isn't guaranteed to us in our time of need, but is being used to protect other people's families -- including those families that do not support equal rights for gays and lesbians.
According to the 2000 U.S. census, blacks make up 13 percent of the U.S. population, and black same-sex couples account for 14 percent of the self-identified same-sex households in the U.S. In addition, black same-sex couples report lower annual median household incomes than black married couples and white same-sex couples. Black gay and lesbian couples are also less likely to report homeownership than black married couples.
Therefore, as a black lesbian, I can expect to earn less and may never own my own home.
So you see, the president's plan to give low-income workers a larger piece of the pie sounds good to the Jasmyne who, according to the U.S. government, is a single black woman. But it frightens the Jasmyne who is a black lesbian in a committed relationship.
And unlike the church that once supported the Jasmyne who was a single black woman but demonized the Jasmyne who was a black lesbian, I can't stop paying tithes -- oops, I meant taxes -- into the system. Lately I've been getting the United Church of the American Government and the United Church of God In Christ confused.
My bad. It's the morals thing and the blurry line between the separation of church and state. You understand.
But, getting back to the point, where does that leave millions like me who work hard to provide for our families while paying money into a system that isn't guaranteed?
What options are left? Win the lottery? I know, maybe my girlfriend and I can find a nice gay couple to switch partners with, in name only, and get married. That would open the door to the plethora of federal benefits provided to married couples, and I could still be a lesbian, because of course, my husband would still be gay.
Maybe that's the answer to my same-gender loving brothers and sisters' problems. It is still gay marriage, but with a little twist that I am sure would go unnoticed by the U.S. government. After all, they're checking for two words on the marriage application, male and female. Right?
All jokes aside, the issue of Social Security or Social Insecurity, as I affectionately refer to it, crosses all lines of race and sexual orientation. The black community, whether heterosexual or gay, has the most to lose or benefit from any reforms to the current situation. Black gay and lesbian couples have just as much at stake and a concern for what happens with Social Security as anyone else. We want fairness for all black families.
Jasmyne Cannick is a public policy communications strategist in Los Angeles. Contact her through her Web site, www.jasmynecannick.com.
Same things happens to heterosexual couples who have children without the benefit of marriage. Neither the children or their mother is protected when the 'breadwinner' dies.
I wander how this woman feels about private accounts? If her money were held privately, she could bequeath it to anyone she chose, and her sexuality would have nothing to do with it.
Gays in the greater SF/Silicon Valley area have been getting married to other gays of the opposite gender for ages. Partner swapping on paper so that they can get benefits like normal married couples.
"Therefore, as a black lesbian, I can expect to earn less and may never own my own home..."
Better put some ice on it...
essentially she is demanding "YOU" must pay for me to have sex with homosexuals.
This is nothing more than a demand for public money for private mere recreational sex.
I stopped reading there. Converting SS into just another welfare program based on "need" and NOT what you have contributed is so UNFAIR I could spit.
So these liars are prosecutable?
The purpose of this society is so that people have the freedom to differentiate -- not so that people have a right to all be exactly the same.
Otherwise, they ought to make same-sex marriages mandatory for all liberals -- until the numbers balance out.
(Please note that I don't discriminate against anyone on basis of race or sex. Just on basis of utter stupidity)
Wow, are you handicapped too! You should just get lots of free stuff.
Ping to self for later pingout.
BWHAHAHAHAHA, that's pretty good!
Simple solution Jasmyne.
Abolish Social Security. Then put the money you used to pay in social security taxes into a mutual fund.
Wall Street doesn't care if you money is gay or not.
Me too, but according to the latest FR poll, that appears to be a minority position.
It's depressing sometimes.
I'm not sure that you're right. That poll included several different ideas about social security that are not necessarily mutually exclusive, yet the poll only allowed us to vote for one option. One option was to support Bush's current plan, while another was to end the system altogether. There were probably many respondents who would have no problem ending the system but who voted for the support Bush's plan option because it is the option on the table right now. Ending the system isn't on the table right now, so people who like that idea in the abstract may have voted for a more concrete, currently viable option in that poll. That poll did not accurately measure how many FReepers think social security should be totally done away with.
Exactly! If this dingbat would set aside her hatred of Republicans and the President and educate herself she would realize that private accounts would generate an asset she could leave to her lezzie lover, or whoever she wanted.
You may be right. I looked over the options and chose the one to scrap SS altogether, but perhaps others were not so careful to choose the option which best described their position.
My greataunt, who died a few years ago at 85, was a black lesbian. She and her partner had been together 50 years. While my other 'aunt' couldn't collect the social security, there was insurance and there was a life estate in the house my aunt owned. She has her own retirement and is doing fine.
These are women who came up when it was hard for blacks to have anything, and somehow, they both had jobs, cars, a house, a nice retirement, and health care. All without special lezbo rights.
No one is stopping anyone from buying insurance or a house. Jeez, we've got programs for illegals to buy houses, surely an American can find a way to purchase a home, sexual orientation and race notwithstanding.
Lesbians, like other unmarried people, can find many ways within the law to take care of each other financially. Statements to the contrary are promotions of another agenda.
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