Monday, October 5, 2009

Worst case: Cost of being gay $467,562

The New York Times has produced a new article documenting the high cost of being a gay couple in a country that does not allow them to marry. The article outlines everything from the price of health care to increased taxes to childbearing to the higher cost of tax preparation.”Being part of a same-sex couple, it’s always stop. Wait. Pay a toll,” Frederick Hertz, a lawyer in Oakland, Calif., said in the article.

The New York Times explains why denying gays the right to marry affects them in a way most people can understand: It hits them hard in the pocketbook. This article is probably the most persuasive and expository piece of writing about the injustice of unequal marriage laws. 

“In our worst case, the couple’s lifetime cost of being gay was $467,562. But the number fell to $41,196 in the best case for a couple with significantly better health insurance, plus lower taxes and other costs,” according to the article. That’s a maximum cost of two median-priced houses and a minimum cost of a cheap college education. Now those are figures Americans can understand.

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