In a surprising move, the US Government charges a committed couple $467.5k extra in taxes because they are gay. This has been a long standing gay penalty that is part of the government's attempt to eliminate homosexuality and promote opposite sex traditional families. The government uses a 1996 law to collect these higher taxes and punish homosexuality.
Along with charging this gay couple an inordinate amount of money in taxes, the government says the next step will be to prevent them from filing with their husbands or wives, and keep them from receiving their spouse's health and pension benefits. The US Government says that this will go a long way in reducing the rate of homosexuality in America. Once people stand to lose so much, they'll stop being gay.
The law was instituted in 1996 and signed by a Democratic president to assist in the fight against the moral evils of homosexuality. Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle agreed that the perpetrators of homosexuality needed to be deterred and changed and that the traditional definition of the family needed to be protected.
Now over a decade later this law is still being used to demean and punish gay people, as is the case with this couple. Everyone's plunging further into debt. The economy is suffering, jobs are being lost and not created anew elsewhere. People are struggling, yet this law remains in effect. This couple has to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars extra, WHILE missing out on important benefits.
The government has waged a decades long campaign to remove certain privileges from the reach of gay people. They've got a list of things they will start to take away one by one, from this couple, until they denounce their homosexuality. Some things on this list include:
* employment assistance and transitional services for spouses of members being separated from military service; continued commissary privileges
* per diem payment to spouse for federal civil service employees when relocating
* Indian Health Service care for spouses of Native Americans (in some circumstances)
* sponsor husband/wife for immigration benefits
* veteran's disability
* Supplemental Security Income
* disability payments for federal employees
* medicaid
* property tax exemption for homes of totally disabled veterans
* income tax deductions, credits, rates exemption, and estimates
* wages of an employee working for one's spouse are exempt from federal unemployment tax
* joint filing of bankruptcy permitted
* joint parenting rights, such as access to children's school records
* family visitation rights for the spouse and non-biological children, such as to visit a spouse in a hospital or prison
* next-of-kin status for emergency medical decisions or filing wrongful death claims
* custodial rights to children, shared property, child support, and alimony after divorce
* domestic violence intervention
Denial of these rights to gay people will urge them to reconsider their homosexual practices, says the government. They'll see the light and get married to an opposite sex person and have a traditional family life. The government says it doesn't hate gay people at all. It just wants to deter them from homosexuality.
The government says gay people are citizens like everyone else. There are even hate crimes protections! The idea is just to let them know that traditional family life is available and more appealing. If we end up deciding to do that, well, that's just a bonus.
Gay people suffer because of this law every day. This person's story is just the beginning.