Former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign is launching a nationwide voter outreach effort in June to coincide with Pride Month and engage millions of LGBTQ voters ahead of the November presidential election, campaign officials tell CBS News.
The coordinated outreach — dubbed “Out for Biden”— will target the estimated 11 million LGBTQ voters throughout the country, with a focus on racking up support in battleground states.
About 50% of registered LGBTQ voters are Democrats, while 15% are Republicans, according to a study by UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute last year. These voters are racially diverse and also tend to be younger. About one fifth of LGBTQ adults aren’t registered to vote.
Around the time most South Carolinians were sitting down to their evening meals on Thursday night, a gay porn star by the name of Sean Harding fired off a tweet that set tongues-a-wagging across the Palmetto State (and in the nation’s capital).
“There is a homophobic republican senator who is no better than (Donald Trump) who keeps passing legislation that is damaging to the LGBT and minority communities,” Harding tweeted. “Every sex worker I know has been hired by this man. Wondering if enough of us spoke out if that could get him out of office?”
Wait … what?
“I cannot do this alone,” Harding added in a follow-up tweet. “If you’d be willing to stand with me against LG please let me know.”
Hold up … LG?
Considering there is only one member of the U.S. Senate with those initials, speculation quickly turned (again) to U.S. senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who has been dodging rumors like this for the better part of the last decade. This time, though, the allegation quickly took on a life of its own. By Friday afternoon, the hashtag “Lady G” – which is purportedly Graham’s nickname among male sex workers – was trending on Twitter.
Just when you thought 2020 couldn’t get any crazier, right?
So … is it true?
Who knows. For years (most recently in October 2018), Graham has denied being a homosexual.
“I know it’s really gonna upset a lot of gay men – I’m sure hundreds of ’em are gonna be jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge – but I ain’t available,” he famously told The New York Times Magazine in 2010. “I ain’t gay. Sorry.”
Still, the rumors have persisted … with many of Graham’s conservative opponents espousing the theory that he was being manipulated (or blackmailed) politically due to secrets surrounding his sexuality.
(Click to view)
(Via: Gage Skidmore)
To be clear: This news outlet does not care about Graham’s sexual orientation. In fact, the sooner we can stop contemplating whatever might turn on the 64-year-old Central, S.C. native, the better.
“Maybe he is gay, maybe he isn’t,” we wrote recently. “We hear the same rumors everybody else does, but it simply isn’t something that factors into our assessment of him as an elected official.”
We are much more concerned with Graham’s chameleon-esque inability to settle on a political orientation. An erstwhile #NeverTrumper, he flip-flopped and began supporting Trump in late 2017 when it became clear he was about to lose his seat.
Were we surprised? No … everything with this guy is calculation.
Thankfully, there are those in Trump’s orbit who are able to see this career chameleon for what he is … an ally in name only.
This news outlet has never been a fan of Graham’s, however we have kept our criticism focused on the issues – like his hare-brained foreign policy views or his failure to consistently stand for the right to life.
We think his votes are bad … and we would like to see him out of office. But we are not going to vilify him over something in his personal life without a damn good reason. Like abuse of power. Something involving tax money. Overt hypocrisy. Or maybe … a clown mask?
Graham is facing a tougher-than-expected fight this fall from Democrat Jaime Harrison, who has attracted significant national support (and raised some serious cash) in his bid to oust the third-term lawmaker. Harrison, incidentally, has been the focus of similar rumors over the years … which we care as much about as the rumors surrounding Graham.
Still, something about this particular installment of the “Lindsey Graham is about to be outed” rumor that seems … different. Lots of national reporters are clearly chasing it (including several who have called our news desk), and the chatter about numerous male escorts contemplating the consequences of violating alleged nondisclosure agreements seems curiously (disturbingly) specific.
Stay tuned … we will have to wait and see what the future holds for the senior senator from South Carolina as he battles the latest (and greatest) round of rumors.
The chief of the Minneapolis police union has blamed trans people for the city’s budget problems during the coronavirus pandemic, and said they’re the reason he won’t get his raise.
Kroll wrote a letter to union members, obtained by the Star Tribune, in which he said: “What is not being told is the violent criminal history of George Floyd. The media will not air this.
“I’ve worked with the four defense attorneys that are representing each of our four terminated individuals under criminal investigation, in addition with our labor attorneys to fight for their jobs. They were terminated without due process.”
Kroll said that protesters against police brutality were a “terrorist movement”, and added: “The politicians are to blame and you are the scapegoats.”
As if his defence of deadly racism by police officers was not enough, now Kroll has decided that trans people are the reason he won’t get a raise.
Minneapolis has asked police and other unionised workers to pass on raises this year, as the coronavirus pandemic has dramatically impacted the city’s budget.
But in an interview with STIM radio host Maxwell Thomas Silverhammer, Kroll said that the the budget issues could be blamed on the city “p**sing away money” by helping trans people access city services.
He said: “The first thing we said was OK, let’s see the budget, let’s see the city budget. And guys they’re p**sing away, millions and millions of dollars to projects, like, you know, they’re giving $15,000 a year to the transgender coordinator of the city.”
Trolls are planning to disrupt Pride month celebrations, which have become uniquely vulnerable this year because of coronavirus, with the vast majority taking place online. The plan was hatched in May on 4chan’s /pol/ (Politically Incorrect) discussion board.
From the 1st June, when Pride month started, they instructed people to drop a “shitton [sic] of disturbing redpills on homosexuality on the comments”, specifically on brand pages promoting Pride on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. They also provided participants with a pack of downloadable, viciously hateful memes.
On top of all that, the trolls say they are targeting dating apps – Tinder, Grindr and Bumble – “with legit, convincing images” to “criticise LGBT” [people]. To avoid people rumbling them using Google reverse image search, they are using a website called ThisPersonDoesNotExist, which uses AI to create unique, realistic-looking pictures of fake people.
A 4chan thread says: “Every June, hundreds of massive corporations band together to smother social media with posts in favour of ‘Pride Month’, a code word for the degeneracy that is LGBT+ activism.”
On the eve of Pride Month, an attack on London venue The Eagle forced its popular Sunday night fundraiser Horsemeat Disco offline.
Mark Oakley, the club’s owner, said its Facebook livestream was inundated by more than 110 spam bots and that a Mixcloud set up to allow thousands of regulars to enjoy the event from home was simultaneously forced down.
Instructions from 4chan are for participants in the social media arm of the trolling operation to appear reasonable at first so that they look like regular “normie” commenters. “No Hitler/Nazi shit.”
New York’s Stonewall Inn became a place of protest once more as thousands gathered to demand justice for the deaths of Tony McDade and Nina Pop.
Tony McDade was shot and killed by a white police officer in Florida on May 27. Nina Pop was found stabbed to death in her apartment in Missouri on May 3. Both were victims of the shocking “epidemic of violence” that disproportionately targets trans people of color in the US.
As the LGBT+ community joins in solidarity against police brutality, activists have called for Black transgender people to be honoured as part of the Black Lives Matter movement sweeping across America and the world.
Standing on a bench near the Stonewall Inn on Monday (June 1), Black trans femme Ianne Fields addressed a gathering crowd: “Black trans women have given y’all culture! Have given y’all style! Have given y’all seasoning in your damn chicken!
“And for too long, we’re not here. You say you honour us. You say you uplift us. Then where the f**k are we?”
The city heard her calls, and the following day thousands of allies assembled outside the historic spot to take a stand for the Black transgender community.
Thousands out in front of Stonewall Inn, the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ+ movement, demanding justice for Tony McDade and Nina Pop. Black lives matter. Black queer lives matter. Black trans lives matter.
Alongside the now-familiar chorus of “No justice, no peace,” protestors led the call-and-response chant: “Say his name — Tony McDade. Say her name — Nina Pop.”
This was followed by the call: “When Black folks are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back! When trans lives are under attack what do we do? Stand up, fight back!”
The demonstration was one of six organised in New York City that day, but it was perhaps the most poignant given that the Stonewall Inn was the site of protests against police violence in 1969 led by Black trans women and lesbians.
The Stonewall Uprising began when a police raid on the bar turned sour after officers accosted bar-goers, and the ensuing protests are commonly credited as the birth of the modern LGBT+ rights movement.
An LGBT+ bar owner in North Carolina was fired at by police during ongoing Black Lives Matter protests for simply running a first aid station on his own property.
Tim Lemuel owns Ruby Deluxe in Raleigh, North Carolina, and on Monday night, June 1, he kept watch outside his bar to stop protestors vandalising the building, according to The News and Observer.
In the parking lot of the LGBT+ bar, Lemuel and his staff set up a first aid station for protestors, handing out granola bars, bottled water and helping them wash pepper spray out of their eyes.
They had been there for around seven hours, Lemuel said, before police showed up.
In a widely-circulated video officers can be seen appearing around the corner and shouting: “Move!” The bar owner repeatedly replies: “This is my business, I rent this place.”
But the police officers continue to approach, as Lemuel slowly backs away, shouting: “You’ve been told. I don’t care where you go, you gotta go.”
An officer then fires what appears to be a shotgun, twice, and says: “The game is over. Get out!”
Eric Curry, a spokesperson for Wake County sheriff’s office, said that the officers were responding to an anonymous tip that the group had been helping Black Lives Matter protestors.
The spokesperson would not name the officers or the weapon used, but described it as “for riot-related crime control”.
Curry added: “We will say only that the strategy to use ‘less-lethal force’ was appropriate, for the safety of subjects. Once deputies urge the crowd to disperse several times and there is non-compliance, the next step is to disperse the crowd.”
The sheriff’s office use of force policy states “that no weapon, either deadly or less-than-lethal will be used against any subject that is offering only passive or verbal resistance”, and that “less-than-lethal” weapons are only appropriate if a person poses “immediate risk of death or serious physical injury to themselves or others and other less forceful options are not reasonably available”.
“I was in the army for eight years, so the bangs didn’t bother me, but my staff were scared out of their minds,” Lemuel said. “If you’ve never been in that situation it appears like you’re going to be killed.”
He said the officers had been watching them, and continued: “During the seven hours, they had, you know, every opportunity to come down and check on us, see what was going on or tell us their concerns.
“They just chose not to. And at some point they just went straight for guns blazing.”
He added on Facebook: “These were queer folks, a marginalised group that already has to actively avoid being attacked just living their day to day lives.”
Raleigh city council member Nicole Stewart said of the incident: “I was quite distraught. Had it been anybody, it would have been bad enough. The idea that it was an individual, a business owner, trying to help other individuals in our community made it that much more startling. And I couldn’t let it sit.”
Stewart is calling on police chief Cassandra Deck-Brown to investigate the incident.
Over the past several days, President Donald Trump has issued presidential actions proclaiming June as National Homeownership Month, Great Outdoors Month and Caribbean-American Heritage Month, among others. On Monday, amid protests across the country, the White House still managed to issue a statement recognizing June 1 as Global Coptic Day — but two days in, nothing, so far, for LGBTQ Pride month.
In the nearly four years since he has been president, Trump has acknowledged Pride Month once, last June, notably becoming the first Republican president to do so. But his acknowledgement was not in an official presidential proclamation, as President Barack Obama’s had been for all eight years of his presidency. Instead, it was a tweet that was later issued as a White House press releasepromoting the administration’s effort to decriminalize homosexuality around the globe.
“Let us also stand in solidarity with the many LGBT people who live in dozens of countries worldwide that punish, imprison, or even execute individuals on the basis of their sexual orientation,” Trump stated last June.
Trump did not acknowledge Pride Month in either proclamations or tweets in 2017 and 2018.
The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, issued a statement Tuesday morning blasting Trump and Vice President Mike Pence for failing again to recognize Pride Month “to honor the history of the LGBTQ community and acknowledge the ongoing movement toward full equality.”
“In a global pandemic and national crisis highlighting ongoing racial violence and police brutality across the country — violence that particularly targets Black lives — Trump and his administration have stoked division, hate and anger with continued attacks on LGBTQ people, people of color, immigrants and other vulnerable communities,” Alphonso David, the group’s executive director, said in the statement.
A request to the White House for comment was not immediately returned Tuesday.
Over the past five years, during his presidential campaign and his presidency, Trump has mentioned the LGBTQ community only a few times. During his campaign, he frequently referred to the Pulse nightclub shootings in 2016 in Orlando, Florida, and promised to protect LGBTQ people from what he described as “the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology.”
On his social media platform of choice, Twitter, he has mentioned the “LGBT” community only a few times in the past five years,transgender people once in July 2017 (when he famously announced he would reinstitute the country’s transgender military ban), and a few scattered comments about “gay” people over the past decade. Lesbians and bisexuals have gone unmentioned.
The Trump re-election campaign, notably, continues to sell rainbow-colored “Make America Great Again” T-shirts on its website for $25.
LGBTQ Pride Month was established by Bill Clinton in June 1999, though it was called Gay and Lesbian Pride Month. In his first proclamation recognizing Pride Month, Clinton said he was “proud” of his administration’s efforts to “end discrimination against gays and lesbians and ensure that they have the same rights guaranteed to their fellow Americans,” citing his signing in 1998 of executive order 13087, which made it possible for people of any sexual orientation to work in the federal government and to receive security clearances.
“Today, more openly gay and lesbian individuals serve in senior posts throughout the Federal Government than during any other Administration,” Clinton’s June 2000 proclamation stated.
George W. Bush declined to recognize June as Pride Month, and it was not until the election of Barack Obama that the tradition started again.
“All people deserve to live with dignity and respect, free from fear and violence, and protected against discrimination, regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation,” Obama’s June 2015 proclamation read.
LGBTQ advocacy groups Monday hastily reoriented planned Pride Month programming, already significantly altered by the coronavirus pandemic, to address the anti-racism protests that have erupted across the United States.
In statements declaring support for #BlackLivesMatter protests against racism and police brutality, organizations including the Human Rights Campaign, the National Center for Lesbian Rights and GLAAD pointed to the radical roots of the early gay rights movement. They called for solidarity with the black and brown communities and many of them cited the now-iconic uprising at New York’s Stonewall Inn in June 1969, which led to the country’s first Pride marches the following year, and some groups also gave a nod to the lesser-known 1966 riot at San Francisco’s Compton’s Cafeteria.
“Today is 6/1, the official start to #PrideMonth. But right now we are reminded that the 1st #Pride wasn’t a party or celebration, it was a RIOT led by Queer POC,” NCLR tweeted, referring to queer people of color.
In a Monday appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Human Rights Campaign President Alphonso David spoke of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and Nina Pop, all black people who have been killed recently, and spoke of the “countless other names and faces” of victims who are still unknown “because there was no camera.” He then drew the connection between the current protests and Pride Month.
“We are celebrating Pride Month starting today, but we have to also remember Pride Month has its roots in the struggle, in protest,” he said.
On Friday, more than 100 LGBTQ civil rights organizations published an open letter condemning racial violence and affirming that they “recognize we cannot remain neutral, nor will awareness substitute for action.”
“We celebrate June as Pride Month, because it commemorates, in part, our resisting police harassment and brutality at Stonewall in New York City, and earlier in California, when such violence was common and expected,” the letter states. “We remember it as a breakthrough moment when we refused to accept humiliation and fear as the price of living fully, freely, and authentically.”
New York state Sen. Brad Hoylman, the body’s only openly gay member, called for a total overhaul of planned Pride Month celebrations — most of which were already canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic and tentatively replaced by a streaming eventscheduled for June 27.
“This is no time for a milquetoast, corporate Pride celebration that simply celebrates the progress we’ve made since 1969,” Hoylman wrote. “It would be unconscionable for the LGBTQ community to ignore that our black and brown neighbors are crying out for justice.”
Hoylman called for Pride 2020 to be replaced by a “return to our roots,” a “radical protest against bigotry, racism, homophobia, transphobia and police brutality.”
The National Center for Lesbian Rights tweeted that for this year’s Pride, the group “will be planning and taking part in events that have a focus on racial justice and anti-blackness, in order to help show how they are intersectional and intertwined with the #LGBTQ community.”
Sarah Kate Ellis, the president and CEO of GLAAD, a national LGBTQ advocacy group, promised that her organization will be “centering and lifting up the voices of Black LGBTQ people” this month. “There can be no Pride if it is not intersectional,” she said.
The actor and activist George Takei was among the LGBTQ celebrities to speak out about the need for a shift during Pride Month.
“You cannot remain silent today and celebrate Pride tomorrow” he said, endorsing #BlackLivesMatter. “We must stand today with our black brothers and sisters.”
Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., a vocal LGBTQ ally, gave a nod to some of the queer movement’s most iconic black and Latino activists in her call for solidarity during Pride Month.
“Because Marsha P. Johnson, Stormé DeLarverie, Sylvia Rivera, and countless other LGBTQ+ people had the courage to stand up for their rights, we now celebrate #PrideMonth,” she wrote on Twitter. “Those pivotal events showed what we know to be true to this day: no one should be left to fight alone.”
Last week two Black men, George Floyd and Tony McDade, were killed by police, leading to countless people protesting around the world in support of Black Lives Matter.
George Floyd died after a police officer pinned him down by the neck using his knee until he went limp. Tony McDade, a trans man, was shot and killed by officers while being chased in connection with a fatal stabbing.
For people of color – gay or straight, trans or cis – these stories, sadly, aren’t unique. Frankly, they’re commonplace. Black people have been dying at the hands of police in horrifying numbers for centuries – only now, the internet is being used to share these stories more widely than ever before.
The police violence being directed at those protesting racism in Minneapolis and in other cities around the world is, again, nothing new. The Black Lives Matter movement and associated groups have been organising protests against police brutality since the 2014 killing of Michael Brown Jr, an 18-year-old Black man shot dead by a white police officer.
Before that, Black people have been asking police to stop killing us for as long as there have been police. But all too often these efforts are welcomed with tear gas, rubber bullets and further violence. And at the end of it all, Black people are still being killed.
Just as the LGBT+ rights movement – which, it pays to remember, was spearheaded by Black trans women and butch lesbians – has been bolstered by straight-cis allies, and has furthered LGBT+ rights by winning over the straight cis (mostly) men who run our world, the Black community needs allies of all races to stand with us. Our voices, our bodies and our actions alone aren’t enough – to affect change as quickly as possible, we need your help.
If you want to stand up and be counted, here is a non-exhaustive list of things you can do.
1. Call for accountability.
The most immediate thing allies can do is to sign petitions and contact political representatives to demand justice for both George Floyd and Tony McDade.
A petition calling for charges to be filed against all four officers involved in Floyd’s death has so far attracted 10 million signatures. The officer who knelt on Floyd’s neck has been charged with murder, but each additional name added will help build pressure for officials to take action against the other three.
A separate petition is simply calling for “Justice for Tony McDade”, and at the time of publication has been signed more than 430,000 times. McDade’s case is currently shrouded in uncertainties – signing his petition will help bring visibility and hopefully answers.
2. Protest.
If you feel safe doing so, consider joining a protest. Understandably not all queer people will be able to do this. If being in large groups and/or around police poses a danger to you, or if you are disabled and concerned about access/making a safe exit, do not feel compelled to protest. There are many lanes of resistance, and each of us can’t occupy all of them.
If you want to protest, it’s easy to find organised demonstrations through social media. Follow trusted Black organisers, protest with a buddy, and maintain social distancing. A widely-shared infographic has other good pieces of advice for protecting yourself.
3. Donate.
If you can afford to do so, there are many Black organisations that need funding at this critical time.
The Minnesota Freedom Fund – which, among other things, is working to free jailed protestors by paying bail and legal fees – has raised over $20 million in the past week and is now asking people to consider donating to other groups.
Its suggestions include the Black Visions Collective – a Black-led, queer and trans-centring organisation dedicated to Black liberation.
It also recommends people donate to Reclaim the Block, a coalition demanding that Minneapolis divest from policing and invest in long-term community alternatives, and the North Star Health Collective, which works with organisers to create safe and health events.
Further afield, there are local organisations working to free protestors across the US. The National Bail Fund Network is maintaining an updated thread of places where people can donate.
Saturday THREAD – So much solidarity from coast to coast! This is an updated thread on bail funds supporting people arrested for demanding justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, & all victims of police violence. 1/#FreeThemAll
4. Educate yourself and others on being anti-racist.
Not being racist isn’t enough. Now as much as ever, it’s important to be vocally and actively against racism in all its forms.
If you aren’t sure what this means, or aren’t comfortable in your knowledge of these issues, take the time to educate yourself. Read books by Black authors, such as Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge, How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X Kendi, or Back to Black by Kehinde Andrews.
Share what you learn with white friends, challenge them when you see or hear them making ill-informed statements, and further the conversation as much as you can.
5. Be mindful on social media.
As journalist Paula Akpan recently tweeted: “Being online right now as a Black person is f**king exhausting.”
Be mindful of sharing videos showing violence against Black bodies without a proper warning. Be considerate in who and what you are retweeting. While racists must be held accountable, there are ways of doing this without amplifying their message of hate – by reporting them to social networks and/or, when appropriate, by informing their employers.
If you are unsure about what to share on social media, often the best thing to do is to amplify the voices of the oppressed – in this case, Black people. Retweet posts and share articles. It’s fine to contribute your own words of course, but be mindful and open to constructive criticism. Above all, remember if you have a platform – even a small one – and want to make a difference, use it.
6. Check in on your queer Black friends.
Amid all of this, don’t forget to keep in contact with your Black friends as you would at any other time. Remember that we won’t always want to talk about race and racism, even when it is dominating topic in the media and online. When we do, be sure to listen more than you do speak, and try not to use us as a resource for your own development.
7. Keep the energy going.
Right now it’s impossible to predict what the future will bring. But regardless, remember to remain committed to anti-racism. Whether the current protests beget sweeping change or whether the status quo returns, continue to make your voice heard, improve your own learning, and support Black people and Black causes.
Michael Ely met his husband, James Taylor, at a Sunset Beach bar in 1971. Taylor, known as “Spider” to his friends, played guitar in a band, and Ely got involved as a singer. The couple lived in California until the emotional toll of the AIDS epidemic became too great. In the early ‘90s, they relocated to Tucson, Arizona, where Taylor worked as a jet mechanic for Bombardier and Ely took care of their home.
In 2007, Ely and Taylor had a commitment ceremony but could not be legally married in Arizona. Then in November of 2014, shortly after the state legalized same-sex marriage — and 43 years after they first met — the two men tied the knot. Six months later, Taylor succumbed to cancer.
“Being able to access survivors benefits can make the difference for whether someone can afford the basic necessities of life, like housing, food and health care.”
PETER RENN, LAMBDA LEGAL
Despite their decadeslong relationship and eventual marriage, the Social Security Administration denied Ely spousal benefits, because the couple had not been married for the requisite nine months.
This week, however, a federal court ruling changed that. The LGBTQ advocacy group Lambda Legal won a class-action lawsuit, Ely v. Saul,on behalf of same-sex couples denied Social Security Administration benefits because of gay marriage bans.
“Because same-sex marriage is a fundamental right, and the underpinnings of the duration-of-marriage requirement has relied on the unconstitutional ban of that right, it cannot be said to be rationally related to a legitimate interest to a surviving spouse such as Mr. Ely,” the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona’s Wednesday ruling states.
Ely described the decision as a “huge victory” that’s “going to help a lot of people.” One of the Lambda Legal attorneys on the case, Peter Renn, agreed.
“It is impossible to overstate the significance of this victory, not just for the number of people it affects, but for vindication of their constitutional rights,” he said.
The other named plaintiffs in the case include Anthony Gonzalez, whose husband, Mark Johnson, died in 2014, and James Obergefell, whose husband, John Arthur, died in 2013. Obergefell was also the plaintiff in the 2015 landmark Supreme Court case Obergefell v. Hodges, which made same-sex marriage legal across the United States.
Renn said that despite the Obergefell decision five years ago, the widowers involved in Ely v. Saul “have been deprived the protections of marriage, and without the victory would have been deprived the protections” for the rest of their lives.
“This type of government denial is flatly unconstitutional, and the ruling provides this relief on a nationwide basis to everyone who was affected by this,” he said.
Following a request for comment, the Social Security Administration referred NBC News to the Department of Justice, which did not immediately respond.
Ruling’s impact
Because Ely v. Saul is a class-action suit, all couples in a similar position to Ely will be able to access survivors benefits.
In 2020, over 65 million Americans will receive over $1 trillion in benefits from the Social Security Administration, according to the agency. While there are no estimates available for the number of gay surviving spouses who will benefit from this week’s ruling, survivors benefits account for over 12 percent of SSA benefits paid. In a single month in 2019, 6 million survivors received $7 billion in benefits.
“Being able to access survivors benefits can make the difference for whether someone can afford the basic necessities of life, like housing, food and health care,” Renn said.
At 67 years old, Ely currently relies on his husband’s pension from Bombardier, but that will run out in a couple of years.
“I think I’m going to be around another 20 years, and this gives me that security that I won’t end up on the streets,” he said of the Social Security benefits he’s now entitled to.
Renn emphasized that Social Security benefits are “benefits we all pay for.”
“This is tethered to your earning history,” he said. “Michael’s husband paid in like everybody else.”
Ely said his husband was a “hard worker” who spent “over 40 years putting into Social Security.”
“To think that I, his partner, his husband, would be denied that money and the government would just keep it didn’t seem fair,” Ely said.
Ely said he expects the government to appeal the decision, but he isn’t allowing that to take the shine out of his victory.
“I am happy, and I know Spider would be happy,” Ely said. “I think he would be doing cartwheels, and I hope he is, somewhere.”
