Thursday, December 13, 2018

This gay widower was denied survivor's benefits. Lambda Legal is suing.

By Peter Renn, Counsel, Lambda Legal

Right now, thanks to your support, Lambda Legal is about to file its third lawsuit this year against the Social Security Administration (SSA) – this time, for denying a 63-year-old gay widower survivor’s benefits after he lost his husband to cancer.

Anthony Gonzales met his late husband Mark in 1998, and just a few months later, they moved in together. Over the next 15 years, the couple joined their finances, named each other as beneficiaries, and cared for one another when sick. They were in a committed, loving relationship.

And if they were a straight couple, they could have been legally married from the start.

However, because Anthony and Mark were a same-sex couple, they had to wait until August 27, 2013 – when a court struck down their state’s marriage ban – to finally marry each other.

Unfortunately, six months later, Mark passed away.

Anthony and Mark married the first day they could – but now the government is telling them that their marriage wasn’t long enough. The Social Security Administration is holding critical survivor’s benefits hostage because of a nine-month marriage requirement that many LGBTQ couples cannot meet due to unconstitutional marriage bans.

GIVE NOW TO DEFEND OUR MARRIAGES

Anthony and Mark worked for years in their community, in a local nonprofit and as an elementary school teacher, respectively. Anthony is entitled to receive the Social Security survivor’s benefits to which he and Mark contributed with every paycheck and that other surviving spouses receive. These funds are especially critical to his day-to-day livelihood in his retirement years.

Past discrimination cannot justify present discrimination, and today we’re taking that fight to New Mexico on behalf of Anthony and Mark’s faithful love for one another. Drew, please give now to help us continue defending our marriages in every state. Thank you for standing up for Anthony and Mark, and all our relationships.