| About this site |
| About us |
| Our beliefs |
| Your first visit? |
| Contact us |
| External links |
| Good books |
| Visitor essays |
| Our forum |
| New essays |
| Other site features |
| Buy a CD |
| Vital notes |
| Non-theistic... |
| Atheism |
| Agnosticism |
| Humanism |
| Other |
| Spiritual/ethics |
| Spirituality |
| Morality/ethics |
| Absolute truth |
| Peace/conflict |
| Attaining peace |
| Religious tolerance |
| Religious hatred |
| Religious conflict |
| Religious violence |
| Laws and news |
| Religious laws |
| Religious news |
Marriage: same-sex and opposite-sex
Legal and economic benefits of marriage
Sponsored link.
The following material was provided by the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund. It is used by permission. The list appears to be based on a request by Representative Henry J Hyde, in 1996-SEP. He was chairperson of the House Committee on the Judiciary, and asked the General Accounting Office "to identify federal laws in which benefits, rights and privileges are contingent on marital status." Their response, which runs 75 pages, is available online. 1
The list below was compiled for a couple living in the United States. However, similar provisions exist in many other countries.
 | joint parenting; |
| joint adoption; |
| joint foster care, custody, and visitation (including non-biological parents); |
| status as next-of-kin for hospital visits and medical decisions where one partner is too ill to be competent; |
| joint insurance policies for home, auto and health; |
| dissolution and divorce protections such as community property and child support; |
| immigration and residency for partners from other countries; |
| inheritance automatically in the absence of a will; |
| joint leases with automatic renewal rights in the event one partner dies or leaves the house or apartment; |
| inheritance of jointly-owned real and personal property through the right of survivorship (which avoids the time and expense and taxes in probate); |
| benefits such as annuities, pension plans, Social Security, and Medicare; |
| spousal exemptions to property tax increases upon the death of one partner who is a co-owner of the home; |
| veterans' discounts on medical care, education, and home loans; joint filing of tax returns; |
| joint filing of customs claims when traveling; |
| wrongful death benefits for a surviving partner and children; |
| bereavement or sick leave to care for a partner or child; |
| decision-making power with respect to whether a deceased partner will be cremated or not and where to bury him or her; |
| crime victims' recovery benefits; |
| loss of consortium tort benefits; |
| domestic violence protection orders; |
| judicial protections and evidentiary immunity; |
| and more.... |
Most of these legal and economic benefits cannot be privately arranged or contracted for. For example, absent a legal (or civil) marriage, there is no guaranteed joint responsibility to the partner and to third parties (including children) in such areas as child support, debts to creditors, taxes, etc. In addition, private employers and institutions often give other economic privileges and other benefits (special rates or memberships) only to married couples. And, of course, when people cannot marry, they are denied all the emotional and social benefits and responsibilities of marriage as well.
Sponsored link:
The changing face of marriage: who is not allowed to marry:
North American governments have prohibited various groups from marrying and thus benefiting from government programs:
| Before the civil war, African-American slaves in some states were not allowed to marry. |
| Before 1967, inter-racial couples were not allowed to marry in some U.S. states. |
| Gay and lesbian couples throughout the U.S. and Canada are not allowed to marry. However Vermont now allows same-sex couples to enter into civil unions. This will bring them all of the state benefits of marriage, but none of the 1,049 federal rights, benefits and privileges that are routinely given to married couples. |
| Some provinces in Canada allow same-sex couples to register as domestic partnerships and obtain many of the benefits of marriage. |
Related essays on this web site:
| Marriage menu: past, present and future |
| Same-sex, marriage menu |
| Civil unions in Vermont |
References:
| Letter from the General Accounting Office to Rep. Henry J Hyde,
1997-JAN-31, at
http://www.gao.gov/archive/1997/og97016.pdf or
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov You need software to read these files. It can be obtained free from:
 |
Copyright © 1997 and 1999 to 2001 incl., by Ontario
Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Latest update: 2001-JUN-10
Compiled by: B.A. Robinson
|
|
