The national debate is now focused on the economy and economic justice. To great fanfare, President Obama presented his vision last week before a joint session of Congress. Two days later, he sent the outline of his budget to Congress, a 10-year plan that is committed to rebuilding America's infrastructure, providing affordable health care for all and recommitting to an affordable education for all. This will, of course, cost money. But not to worry. If you make less than $250,000 a year, your taxes won't increase. They will come down. Well, not exactly! What the president really meant is that if you are a heterosexual, married couple who together earns less than $250,000, then your taxes won't go up.
What he didn't say was that if you are a same-sex married couple, or a same-sex couple in a domestic partnership or in a civil union, these new rules won't apply to you. That is because in the eyes of the federal government, your relationship has no legal significance. You are strangers before the law. And get this one: your mortgage and charitable deductions are going to change. Even though your tax rate might be 35 percent or 39.6 percent under the president's plan, your charitable deductions will be capped at 28 percent. But not to worry. This will only affect you (heterosexual, married couple) if you make $250,000 or more. Ok, but what about us? Sorry, gay couple. You're strangers under the law. You calculate your deductions individually. Now, wealthier people, gay or straight, tend to give the larger charitable contributions. So a gay family's contribution to AIDS Emergency Fund costs them more than the same contribution by a conservative family's equivalent contribution to James Dobson's Focus on the Family.
While it might sound like it, I really don't mean to be trashing the president and his goals. I think President Obama is terrific, and I share his goals. But these two examples, cited above, of how gay and straight couples are treated differently are stark illustrations of the inherent unfairness and discrimination built into our federal laws. And it doesn't just apply to the rich. It affects everyone! You, too! The federal government's General Accounting Office did a careful study of existing law and enumerated more than 1,100 rights and privileges available to heterosexual married couples that are not available to same-sex couples.
Everyone who works outside the home builds a Social Security account. Straight people receive Social Security payments upon the death of a spouse. Gay couples receive no such benefit, which results in an average annual income loss of over $5,500 upon the death of a partner. Many gay couples are binational yet do not have the same right as straight, married couples to petition for their partners to immigrate, frequently forcing separation or relocating to another country. Gay couples do not have the same rights to employer-provided health insurance, and when they are able to get it, often must pay state and federal taxes on the value of the insurance. Gay couples do not have inheritance rights afforded straight couples, frequently forcing the survivor to sell the couple's home or business to pay the estate taxes. Gay families with children do not have the same rights to family leave, hospital visitation, or the right to make medical decisions as heterosexual parents. The list goes on and on.
While I ask, where is the justice, I also ask "where is the rage?" Why aren't we doing anything about it? Why isn't anyone forcing this blatant inequality and discrimination to be part of the national discussion on the economy and on economic justice? Where are our gay elected leaders? Where are our national and state organizations, such as the Human Rights Campaign, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and Equality California? We seem to be stuck rehashing and dissecting the loss of marriage equality with the passage of Proposition 8. While we were all immensely disappointed in that result, marriage equality will not be achieved until public opinion evolves further than it has today. It will not be achieved by another, costly ballot measure that will only sap our all too meager financial resources and energy at the expense of LGBT charities and nonprofits that are in desperate need. It will be achieved over time by education; by supporting programs in the schools such as Gay Straight Alliances; and most important, as Harvey Milk always said, by coming out of the closet to our family, friends and co-workers. It will come. But it will come gradually and over time. And hate it as I do to admit it, the national discussion has moved on. It's the economy, stupid!
And we are missing our opportunity to be part of this national discussion by not insisting on equal rights for LGBT individuals and couples under federal law with the same intensity and focus that we fought Prop 8. When the president talked about equal opportunity for all income levels and all segments of society, where was his plan to give LGBT couples equal treatment under the law? He has said he believes in civil unions with full equality of federal rights. The White House Web site even has a section titled "Support for the LGBT Community," which includes a subsection titled "Support Full Civil Unions and Federal Rights for LGBT Couples." Why aren't we holding him to his pledge? He's talking the talk. Why aren't we making him walk the walk? Where are our leaders? Throughout the last two recent national elections, rarely did an opportunity go by where candidates for many different state and national offices were not asked their position on gay marriage. While the answers varied, there seemed to be a common thread through all the Democratic candidates and many Republicans. Regardless of their position on marriage, they consistently claimed to support civil unions and full federal rights for LGBT couples. Why aren't we insisting they make good on their position? Why aren't we demanding that bills be circulated in the House and the Senate for those who took the position of full federal rights for civil unions to co-sponsor? Where are our leaders?
The news this week that a gay advocacy group filed a federal lawsuit in Boston challenging a section of DOMA does not lessen the responsibility of political leaders to honor their commitment to equality for same-sex couples. That's where our focus is.
The Bay Area Reporter feels strongly that we must insist on full federal rights for LGBT couples. Now! We feel that it must be part of the current national debate, and that we must insist that our elected representatives and community leaders not put it off to another day. To that end, the B.A.R. pledges to commit all of the resources at its disposal as the principal, journalistic voice for the LGBT community in the United States today, to keep this issue in the forefront. We will write about it. We will investigate issues relevant to it and ask hard questions to those in positions to do something about it. We will opine on it. And we will not let up until Congress passes and the president signs into law a bill giving full federal rights for all LGBT couples.