LGBT, marriage and federal benefits

As members of the LGBT community in the USA we monetarily do more for the federal government than our heterosexual counterparts.

For example, we pay more in federal taxes and we receive less in federal benefits.

So many are quick to tell us we have the same rights to marry the opposite sex as any other citizen.

I propose we listen to their words!

I suggest, before we go to our graves, we marry. Instead of giving our social security survivor benefits to the government when we pass on we should marry an opposite-gender LGBT community member.

After all, why should we give even more to a government that takes advantage of us our entire lives?

As a side note for the gay men. If you marry a female that has children (under the age of 18), the children also receive benefits.

Let’s create a hypothetical (and this doesn’t even take into account the number of natural deaths, accidental deaths and suicides).

Over half a million deaths have occurred in the United States due to AIDS.

Let’s be conservative and say only half of those were members of the LGBT community (we all know it was more).

Of course we know they weren’t married and we know they didn’t pass on at a ripe old age.

We also won’t take into consideration children (this would drastically change the numbers, in our favor).

So let’s say the “surviving spouse” (which is non-existent) was to live another 30 years and receive $500 a month in social security survival benefits. She/he can't collect until they are 60 years of age, unless they have children.

Do the math: 250,000 x $500 x 12 (months a year) x 30 (years) = $45,000,000,000

That’s 45 BILLION dollars the federal government has not had to pay out!

45 billion dollars the LGBT community has given the United States government.

And we all know this is a VERY conservative number. Especially since we didn’t account for children and reduced the number of deaths much more than is actual. We also reduced the monthly payment amount since most would receive more than $500 a month.

Even if the spouse only collected for 20 years, it's still 30 billion dollars.

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Sources:
http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/surveillance/basic.htm#ddaids
http://www.ssa.gov/ww&os2.htm

USA occupied Iraq: Hell for gays

Since January of this year, with the publication of a United Nations report on the murders, torture, and harassment of GLBT Iraqis at the hands of religious extremists, the international community has known of the plight of gays and lesbians in Iraq; but no official help has come their way. Efforts to shield, shelter, and smuggle GLBT people out of American-occupied Iraq have been led by private groups and individuals.

A New York Times article cited the 2005 fatwa against gays and lesbians by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a Shiite, who instructed that GLBT people be hunted down and executed in the "worst, most severe way."Though al-Sistani officially called for the end of that fatwa in 2006, the killing has continued.

A deep irony about the situation is that America’s intervention in the country had initially been seen as a hopeful development by the country’s GLBT citizens, who lived in fear of the law but whose lives could usually run normally, as long as they were discreet about their relationships and gatherings. But unfortunately the way things were before was so much better than where we are now.

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