Marriage Equality Rhode Island

MERI Blog

Updates, news, action alerts and events from Marriage Equality Rhode Island.

Poverty in the LGBT Community

posted by Tiffany Rauch-Dickson

on Tuesday, July 14, 2009 at 10:43 am

(via Center for American Progress)

Every day the LGBT community seems to be experiencing a new expansion of civil rights. President Barack Obama signed on June 17 a Presidential Memorandum on Federal Benefits and Non-Discrimination that grants non-discrimination protections and some same-sex partner benefits for LGBT federal employees. On May 6, Maine Governor John Baldacci (D-ME) signed into law a bill legalizing same-sex marriage, making Maine the fifth state—along with Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, and Iowa—to allow same-sex marriage. And the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which, if passed by the Senate and signed by the president, would expand protections under the federal hate crimes law to LGBT people.

Recent data has found that denying LGBT people equal access to the institution of marriage, protection from employment discrimination, and other civil rights and family benefits may be contributing to higher poverty rates in the LGBT community than in the general population overall. Despite recent advances, LGBT civil rights are rarely addressed in policy debates surrounding poverty. This issue brief examines the latest data on poverty in the LGBT community and outlines how the continued expansion of civil rights will help to reduce it.

READ ENTIRE STORY & ISSUE BRIEF

0 comments — Start the conversation »

Taxes add sting to loss of domestic partner

posted by Tiffany Rauch-Dickson

on Thursday, June 18, 2009 at 2:59 pm

Deadline nears for those seeking to roll back property reassessments.
By Molly Hennessy-Fiske at the LA Times | June 16, 2009

Don Atkins shared his life with Ted Horzella for 37 years. For the last three years of Horzella’s life, the men were registered with the state of California as domestic partners.

But when Horzella died in 2005 at the age of 76, Atkins was shocked to learn his annual property tax bill would rise from $1,400 to $10,400.

He paid an attorney $6,700 to fight his assessment and Los Angeles County an additional $20,000 in taxes. But his break didn’t come until last year, when the state Legislature changed the law to exempt domestic partners reassessed between 2006 and 2000.

Atkins, 67, is among about a dozen homeowners in the county who have applied for an exemption from property reassessment after the death of a partner or the breakup of the relationship. It’s a benefit long enjoyed by married couples and extended to new domestic partners in 2006, six years after the state began registering them.

But those who registered before that date must apply for reconsideration. The deadline is June 30.

READ THE REST OF THE STORY

1 comments — Join the conversation »

Marriage Equality Could Mean a $9.5 Billion Windfall

posted by Tiffany Rauch-Dickson

on Tuesday, June 16, 2009 at 2:41 pm

The $9.5 Billion Gay Marriage Windfall
from Forbes.com

If same-sex marriage were legalized nationwide, the lackluster wedding industry would perk up fast.

Howls of protest erupted last month when California’s Supreme Court upheld Proposition 8, stripping gay and lesbian couples of their right to marry. Adding to the din: all the disappointed planners, seamstresses, jewelers, travel agents and caterers who comprise the massive yet plodding American wedding industry.

There are 781,267 same-sex couples living together in the U.S., according to the Census Bureau’s 2005-07 American Community Survey. The Williams Institute, a research arm of UCLA’s law school, predicts that if gay marriage were legalized nationwide—only Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, Vermont, Iowa and (as of earlier this month) New Hampshire allow it now—about half of those couples would tie the knot within three years.

Talk about a stimulus package. While wedding-related revenues—snagged by small shops to giant corporations like Tiffany, Williams-Sonoma and Marriott International—top $160 billion (an average wedding now costs $20,400), the industry has shrunk at an annualized 1.9% rate after inflation since 1999. If half of the same-sex couples got hitched, Forbes estimates that the industry would reap nearly $10 billion in additional revenue.

READ THE REST OF THE STORY

0 comments — Start the conversation »

The real costs of Florida’s adoption ban

posted by Susan MacNeil

on Wednesday, April 01, 2009 at 10:55 am

(HRC Backstory, Chris Johnson, 3/31/09)

By Ellen Kahn, director of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Family Project:

Ever since Anita Bryant cast her spell of fear and hate over Floridians in the mid-70’s, loving, qualified “homosexuals” in that state have been banned from adopting children.  This, supposedly, was done in the best interests of children.

Fast forward 30 years.  It’s now widely known that one’s sexual orientation is not a determinant for their ability to provide the support, love, guidance and security every child needs and deserves.  We also know that thousands of LGBT adults are interested in learning more about adoption, and with thousands of Florida’s children–and over 100,000 nationwide–waiting for a permanent family, the time has come to strip away that law and open the door to more great families for more great kids.  In a new report (PDF) released this month by UCLA’s William Institute, researchers Naomi Goldberg and Lee Badgett argue that if fostering rates in Florida rise to the national level as a result of the ban being lifted, they estimate that 219 children would be adopted, saving the state approximately $3.4 million in the first year alone.

Let’s all hope that this is the year we finally see Florida move into the 21st century by passing legislation, introduced by Senator Nan Rich, that will finally remove the discriminatory and insulting law that prevents “homosexuals” from adopting chidren.  When the Miami Herald came out against the adoption ban on its editorial page a few weeks ago, it correctly noted:

The ban hurts Florida’s foster children most. Florida is the only state with a complete ban on gay and lesbian adoptions of foster children. But the state thinks it’s fine for them to be foster parents. This hypocritical policy means the state considers a gay couple’s home perfectly fit for foster kids but not good enough for giving that child a permanent, stable, loving life.

0 comments — Start the conversation »

Page 1 of 1 pages