Rock for Equality to end Social Security discrimination!
By Task Force staff, April 9, 2:42 pm
The L.A Gay & Lesbian Center and the Task Force, in coalition with the AIDS Community Action Foundation, are holding a Rock for Equality rally to spotlight the discrimination against same-sex couples in receiving Social Security benefits and demand an end to this costly inequity.
Same-sex couples pay into the Social Security system, but are denied benefits when a partner dies, including retirement benefits, survivor benefits and disability insurance. Since 2000, these benefits have totaled more than $2 billion.
At the Rock for Equality rally on April 11, U.S. Rep. Linda Sanchez (D.-Calif.) is slated to announce plans to author legislation to end this discrimination. The L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center, Task Force and AIDS Community Action Foundation approached Sanchez to do so. Read The Advocate story.
Rock for Equality rally participants will gather this Sunday at the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center at 9:30 a.m. and march to the local Social Security Administration building for a “rocking chair rock-in.”
“Same-sex couples are being systematically short-changed by unfair Social Security policies, costing our families $2 billion in the past decade alone. The shock of this inequity comes at one of the most vulnerable times in our lives: when we lose our partner. Social Security was created to protect all Americans in their later years, but this hasn’t been the case for our families. This unfairness must end,” said Task Force Executive Director Rea Carey.
Watch more personal stories of discrimination here.
The Task Force recently released Outing Age 2010: Public Policy Issues Affecting Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Elders, an in-depth look at public policy issues and challenges facing millions of people in the United States. Outing Age 2010 found that federal safety-net programs like Social Security define family and partnership in ways that exclude same-sex couples and their families, creating economic and familial hardships. The study called for an end to such discrimination.
