I’m all for fighting for marriage equality in the LGBT community. But we’re so focused on that no one knows about this problem.
W…wait Thats a thing????
Yep! The man I refer to as my husband? We aren’t actually married. We can’t be.
If I married him, the government would literally expect me to care for him and be his sole source of income. He would lose all of his benefits, including SSDI. Spouses are expected to share income and that effects ALL of his benefits, even his health insurance. We simply can’t afford to be married.
But it goes even further than that. If I were disabled, our incomes would STILL be combined, meaning BOTH of us would have our benefits cut.
For people reviving supplemental income, their benefits can be cut anywhere from 25% of their current income all the way down to 0%
In fact, one of the stipulations of receiving income under the adult disabled child program (which provides benefits for people who were disabled before age 22) is that they LITERALLY never be married.
I normally don’t link to blog posts as resources, but since social service resource sites like to dress this problem up and make it seem smaller than it really is, I’m gonna call it appropriate! Check it out!
“Their marriage, which will reach 25 years in August, is a quiet and monumental symbol of advances in civil rights for the disabled.”
This is beautiful. Disabled people shouldn’t have to choose between sharing their lives with someone and receiving supports they need, and this is a really good example of what is possible for DD and ID people if they are given the freedom to both live and love without being penalised for it. For those who don’t realise it, many disabled people who want to share their life with someone in the US have to choose between love and their benefits and supports that enable them to survive. Sean Kirst: For Valentine’s Day, a quiet, but monumental, love story
just a reminder from your local tired Australian that we did not legalise marriage equality today
we just got the results in of a non binding, voluntary country wide opinion poll
that has been preceded by months of open bigotry, as the vote no side ran feral except with a lot of money and conservative clout behind them
the bill to allow for same sex marriage had been put foward in parliament
we are still not there yet
so please
don’t spread posts saying gay marriage is legal in australia now
its super not! there’s still so much more foot dragging and awfulness to look forward to around this topic here
^^^^
It’s yes. It’s not legally binding, but it’s yes. I’m so fucking overwhelmed right now, I keep bursting into tears. I can’t help thinking that this result is cruel – it’s teasing at the idea of equality without actually giving it to us. That’s still down to our parliament, which for decades has been putting off and putting off and putting off what they laid the groundwork for EIGHT YEARS AGO when they started taxing same sex couples the same as straights. They’ll take our money, but won’t give us the rights a straight de facto couple has by default. Inheritance. Medical and hospital decision making. Funerals. Adoption and custody. Fostering. And that’s just a handful of things. The inequality in the law permeates every aspect of my relationship. It’s a sword of Damocles that I can never escape.
Alina Davis, a 23-year-old trans woman, and Allison Brooks, her 19-year-old partner, donned matching white floor-length bridal gowns and married at a civil registry office earlier this month.
As Davis is still legally regarded as male, the office had no choice but to hand them a marriage certificate.
The couple said officials chided them, and appeared to be violent.
‘She called us the shame of the family and said we need medical treatment … I was afraid my pussycat [an affectionate pet name in Russian] would beat the fuck out of her,’ Davis said on her VK page.
But the couple were allowed to sign the papers, meaning a gay couple in Russia are legally recognized as married – even if it’s through a loophole.
‘This is an important precedent for Russia,’ Davis said.
Russia banned same-sex marriage and outlawed ‘gay propaganda’ in 2013.
holy jesus look at these two warrior princesses
they are my heroes
YOU GO GIRLS
“Oh, you don’t wanna recognize my gender? Okay then lol guess you have to recognize my marriage”
knitting in the dark 