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From my sister (since she added her “wife” to her health plan at work; I put wife in quotes because she resides in a state that doesn’t allow same-sex marriage):
“Holy shit, my paycheck is $500 smaller! It appears they took out my regular cost for insurance on the pre-tax side and then took out the total for me AND mary on the post -tax side, meaning they double-charged me. And holy shit what bullshit that I have to pay for her health insurance AFTER taxes and I’m guessing the DOMA defeat won’t change that at all. I really hope the increased over $100 in federal taxes alone as well as in increase in all the other taxes is some kind of mistake. My god! Why in the hell would they go up that much?? It couldn’t possibly because Mary’s health insurance is a taxable benefit right? I am freaking out waiting for the HR woman to call me back.”
Then…
“It’s an after-tax thing for a “domestic partner” because you’re not married and they’re federal taxes so you can’t have that money withheld before taxes like everything else since it’s basically a company choice to even cover this adult stranger on your plan — the government won’t allow you to do it pretax. I mean you can even imagine the bureacratic reaches of discrimination? And this is why companies like Google pay their gay employees these differences because otherwise they get less take-home money than their straight counterparts. God just thinking about it makes my blood boil and I KNOW some people think we should just stop complaining all the time. GODDDDDDDD … My taxes went up $170 dollars because the health plan for mary is taxable and counts as income and so I am taxed on it. I’m just sitting here crying. It’s so unfair. That’s a $2040.00/year gay tax!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
People are ferociously discriminated against in our world. You don’t have to live in the WWII era or a concentration camp to see that straight people get PRIVILEGES that other people DO NOT GET! We get more money because of it. We have an easier time with taxes because of it. We face less questions because of it. We don’t have to sweat who can see us if we end up in ER. More than ONE THOUSAND federal laws discriminate against gay people. It is an injustice on a massive scale. In Michigan there is a constitutional amendment to BAN gay people from marrying each other. That stuff poliferates because the people who are privileged lean back and do nothing. Call a senator today. Send an email. Do something! Raise your voice. Make this issue matter.