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.
cry me a river,
My point exactly. As I said, why is this our problem? It's not.
What is it they say about people with low expectations? That they have no problem living up to them? It must go something like that.
When did they add this benefit? And where do I sign up?
who said recreational sex legally defined a "family"?
With the temporary exception of mass (and that is a mass only phenomenon so far)the only legally defined family is One man and one woman and their legally binding offspring. This federal.
This homosexual black woman is just trying to propagand disemble her defenition of "family" = orgasm.
Wish someone would drain the gay gene pool.
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