Estate Planning For Same-Sex Couples: Be Extra Vigilant About Your Wishes!

Saw this on You Departed Blog:

"Marshall Loeb, of MarketWatch, has some excellent advice for same-sex couples concerning wills, estate planning, power of attorney, etc, and why good planning is even more important for same-sex couples than for straight spouses. Attorney Tanya Harvey, on Loeb’s website, says that:

“. . . estate planning is even more imperative for same-sex couples than for straight spouses because. . . gay couples don’t have the tax and inheritance advantages that marriage conveys, so these benefits have to be created through estate-planning documents.”

“Harvey, a Washington lawyer with the firm Bryan Cave, helps unmarried couples ensure that their partners and families will be provided for in the event of illness or death. When it comes to estate planning, Harvey recommends that gay families start by consulting a lawyer on three key issues:

1. Power of attorney. Assigning your partner a power of attorney for health care is relatively simple, says Harvey, but it can save you major migraines in the long run. Most hospitals allow only family members related by blood or marriage to visit patients in critical care. If your companion has a power of attorney, it guarantees admittance. It also gives him or her a voice when decisions have to be made about your care.

2. The pros and cons of domestic partnership. Many couples living in states that recognize domestic partners are eager to sign up, but Harvey cautions her clients to consider the potential pitfalls. While domestic partnerships often convey a variety of inheritance, employment and tax benefits, they are difficult to dissolve in some states. Disentangling yourself from a domestic partnership is often as complicated and expensive as traditional divorce, says Harvey, so don’t treat it lightly.

3. What happens to your legacy? It is essential that each partner has a valid, up-to-date, signed and witnessed will. If you die without a will providing for your same-sex mate, the state determines what will happen to your money and property. “Generally, the surviving partner gets nothing,” says Harvey. Consult a lawyer to draw up a will or a trust. Harvey highly recommends revocable trusts, because they offer privacy and are harder to challenge in court.

For further information on same-sex estate planning, visit Rainbowlaw.com.

It is imperative that ALL couples get all of their documents in order, and that the surviving partner/spouse know where these documents are kept. Thee surviving partner/spouse must have access to everything, right at his/her fingertips, for this will save a lot of headache and heartache and aggravation for all concerned."

Good advice!

Fruit for Thought...

Recent debate about ENDA (the Employment Non-Discrimination Act) has gay rights activists pitted against gay rights activists who are arguing over the breadth of coverage of the protections afforded by the act.

Broadly speaking, on one hand, you have gay rights activists who believe that ENDA will only pass by a veto proof margin if the protections do NOT cover job discrimination against transgendered and transsexual people. On the other side are those who argue that the LGB's must stand in solidarity with the T's because there is strength in numbers and/or it is the right thing to do.

Some LGB activists are uncomfortable that issues regarding the T’s have been “tossed into the pot” of legislative protections for L, G and B employees. They argue that to compare the T’s with the LGB’s is like comparing apples and oranges. Both queer and fruity but otherwise, not the same.

Another rationale we’ve heard (in support of excluding the T’s from ENDA) is that the T’s do have access to rights and protections that are currently NOT available to LGB people.

For example, because the T’s are not necessarily gay or lesbian, it is true that those who have opposite sex partners can and do take advantage of rights and benefits not available to those of us in same-sex relationships. Those rights and benefits might include marriage, adoption, military service, the ability to collect government benefits, etc.

We read a post about an activist who challenged the T’s to show their solidarity with the LGB’s by refusing to take advantage of their right to marry an opposite sex partner until the LGB’s also have that right.

Still others contend that it makes political sense to pass a watered down version of ENDA now – even if its protection is limited to the LGB’s. Those who believe in this approach include Representative Barney Frank, himself a G-man, who said that the important thing to do is get the bill passed and then we can try to add the T’s later.

We (Carrie & Elisia and therefore, Rainbow Law) find the entire debate somewhat distasteful if not disgraceful!

How often have you heard us rail against other minority groups for their unwillingness or inability to empathize with our (LGB) oppression?

If every member of a minority group in America – Gay, Lesbian, Transgendered, Transsexual, Bi-Sexual, Native American, Hispanic, African American, Black, Asian, Muslim, Jew, Arab, Indian, etc. -- who has ever experienced state sanctioned discrimination would just for one second reflect on that fact that all of us have, in common, the knowledge and understanding of oppression and the denial of basic rights simply because of our religion, skin color, ethnicity, gender and/or sexual orientation.

If only we can all be courageous enough to empathize with one another on this basic, human level, NONE of us would BE in a minority group because together, WE ARE THE MAJORITY.

When we are able to rise above the our own fear of “the other,” we will understand that the only true “US AGAINST THEM” dynamic is the one that pits the HAVE-NOTS -- mostly old, very young, and/or poor, people of color, LGBTQ people, religious, ethnic and racial minorities – against the HAVES -- mostly White, male, christian, wealthy, straight, holders of political and financial power.

Together, in solidarity, we would be a MAJORITY. It is essential to the survival of the true MINORITY that we continue to fear and mistrust one another.

Otherwise, the HAVES would no longer be free to go on raping and pillaging the Earth and our collective Spirit.

When we step back and look at the BIG picture, we cannot justify excluding the T’s from a law that THEY need just as much as we do.

Especially when we are asking other (often reluctant) minority groups to support OUR struggle for legal equality.

Somewhere, someone has to stop the cycle of climbing up the citizenship ladder by stepping on the backs of the next lowest despised minority.

Whether GLB, T or the other T, we're all oppressed by the same folks for similar reasons.

To us, it's perfectly clear: we're all Queer here.

What's the catch?

We get asked this question quite often:

How can Rainbow Law make such high quality legal documents for FREE? What’s the catch?

Well, there is no catch!

We are a lesbian couple with children and grandchildren who live in a state that does not provide legal rights and protections for our family. We understand the need for legal documents that create rights and benefits that the law does not provide. Furthermore, we have the skill and knowledge to provide this service to our community and it pleases us to do so.

We also create affordable legal document packages that provide further and more elaborate protections – i.e. inheritance rights, rights to raise children, rights to make decisions about funeral arrangements, and more.

The money we receive from donations (funding 75% of our budget) and the sale of affordable legal document packages (supplying 25% of our budget) allows us to provide state specific Advance Directives at no charge to the LGBTQ Community.

Why do we work so hard to find a way to make Rainbow Law Advance Directives free?

Because we don't believe LGBTQ families should have to pay for such basic and fundamental legal rights when those rights are automatically granted to heterosexual married couples – free of charge – simply because they are married in the eyes of the law.

You should not have to spend a fortune (and some attorneys charge huge sums of money) to buy something that you deserve – just like every other American citizen.

LGBTQ people are not asking for anything more than what is promised and delivered to everyone else.

It does not cost the government one-red-cent to grant us the right to be present in our partner’s hospital room – or to make decisions about our partner’s health care and finances. Yet we are denied those rights by elected officials who base their votes and policy decisions on an illegal religious test (for that is what is behind anti-gay legislation) that creates a second class of citizenship for same-sex couples.

It is degrading and infuriating to be told that we have no right to choose and protect our family!

Rainbow Law – Carrie and Elisia -- are determined to stand with you in our struggle against inequality and for full rights as US citizens – including the right to marry.

In order to be able to continue our work, we need your help.

We are in our Fall Fundraising Season and need to raise $30,000 by December 21, 2007 so that we can carry on for another year.

If you believe in us and think what we are doing is valuable, PLEASE donate even a small amount to show your support!

This year, we are offering some cool gifts in exchange for your donation so we hope you’ll take a look and help us continue to help you!

Elisia & Carrie Ross-Stone
Co-Founders of Rainbow Law

Come OUT, Come OUT, Wherever You Are!

Oct. 11, 1987, 500,000 people marched in Washington, D.C. to advocate LGBTQ rights.

The event shocked a Nation and just may have been the last straw for the wing-nuts who prefer us to stay invisible, miserable and ashamed of ourselves for being ourselves.

Those 500,000 courageous souls also inspired countless other LGBTQ people to follow their lead and since that day, more and more of us are stepping out of the closet to breathe the fresh air of honesty and self-respect.

This week we celebrate National Coming Out Week and we invite you to join us.

As part of Unity Mississippi’s Outoberfest, we will be spending the week in Jackson Mississippi, presenting a Get All Your Ducks in a Row, Estate Planning Workshop.

If you are not able to make it to Jackson, we hope you will celebrate the week by coming out to someone who needs to know who you are. Being out and visible may seem frightening and we cannot guarantee a smooth ride.

What we CAN tell you is assure you that once the dust is settled, you will be SO relieved that you no longer have to live a lie or feel afraid that someone will learn the truth about your life.

Throughout the week we will make every effort to continue to post on RAINBOWbLAWg and publish RainbowZine but we hope you will be patient with us if we are unable to do so. Our beat-up old laptop (it traveled with us on the 2004 Rainbow Ride Across America) is on the fritz. The built-in mouse doesn’t work and some of the key’s stick. The battery doesn't hold a charge and it overheats after about 30 minutes.

Speaking of old and battered equipment, we are having a Fall Fund Raiser and we hope you will send a little something to help us out (no pun intended). In exchange, we are offering some really cool gifts!

Your donation provide us with the tools we need to continue to bring you the blog, the newsletter, free workshops, free legal documents, and all of the other services we offer to our community.

Have a great, open, visible and OUT WEEK!