Over 1,000 benefits, rights and protections are available to married couples in federal law alone, including hospital visitation, filing a joint tax return to reduce a tax burden, access to family health coverage, US residency and family unification for partners from another country, and bereavement leave and inheritance rights if a partner dies.
Cohen, JD, Associate Professor at the Drexel University School of Law, explained, “Imagine three people-Nancy, Bill, and Tom… Nancy, a woman, can marry Tom, but Bill, a man, cannot… Nancy can do something (marry Tom) that Bill cannot, simply because Nancy is a woman and Bill is a man.” On JMiami-Dade County Circuit Court Judge Sarah Zabel ruled Florida’s gay marriage ban unconstitutional and stated that the ban “serves only to hurt, to discriminate, to deprive same-sex couples and their families of equal dignity, to label and treat them as second-class citizens, and to deem them unworthy of participation in one of the fundamental institutions of our society.” Īs well as discrimination based on sexual orientation, gay marriage bans discriminated based on one’s sex. Same-sex couples should have access to the same benefits enjoyed by heterosexual married couples. Pro 1 To deny some people the option to marry would be discriminatory and would create a second class of citizens.
