To some Americans, Buttigieg may just be the man to vanquish America’s demons. In a field of more than 20 candidates—including six Senators, four Congressmen, two governors and a former Vice President—Buttigieg (pronounced Boot-edge-edge) has vaulted from near total obscurity toward the front of the Democratic pack, running ahead of or even with more established candidates and behind only Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders.
Buttigieg is a gay Episcopalian veteran in a party torn between identity politics and heartland appeals. He’s also a fresh face in a year when millennials are poised to become the largest eligible voting bloc. Many Democrats are hungry for generational change, and the two front runners are more than twice his age. But Buttigieg’s greatest political asset may be his ear for languages. He speaks eight, including Norwegian and Arabic, but he’s particularly fluent in the dialect of the neglected industrial Midwest.
Anti-gay preacher James David Manning faces abuse allegations
The preacher is under scrutiny after an investigation by Huffington Post revealedallegations of abuse at the private fundamentalist school attached to the church, also run by Manning.
One former ATLAH High School student, Tamar, alleged that Manning had sexually harassed her and touching her inappropriately.
Aged 18, Tamar secretly recorded a conversation with Manning in which the preacher makes sexual comments and states he had feelings for her when she started at the school.
He says: “You got an incredible body… In fact, like on Wednesday night you came, and you had on a black blouse and black stockings and a gray or something skirt. All I could think about was, ‘Wow, I sure would like to remove those stockings and that blouse,’ and just look at your body.”
Another former student told the outlet that he was locked in a basement for three days by Manning as a punishment for having sex with a girl.
Other students said that homophobia was rife at the school, with Manning frequently railing against evil “faggots.” Others likened Manning’s grip over Atlah congregants to a cult leader.
Four attendees at Atlah church also alleged that Manning encouraged them to “defecate in a bag and leave it at gay-owned businesses.”
The private religious school has been operating for years despite its “registration pending” status with New York state.
A spokesperson for the New York Department of Education told Huffington Post: “The Department takes all allegations of misconduct against certified educators extremely seriously.”
“[We] would encourage anyone that believes they may have been the victim of misconduct to contact us with the appropriate complaint information.”
Anti-gay preacher blames ‘LGBTQ mafia’ for abuse allegations
Manning did not comment on the allegations.
However, in a Twitter storm he claimed: “THE LGBTQ MAFIA IS SPREADING LIES ATTEMPTING A HIT JOB ON OUR CHURCH. THEY WANT HARLEM TO BE WHITE AND HOMOSEXUAL.
“THEY SAY HATE ALL WHO PREACH AGAINST THEIR SEXUAL RACISM. IT WILL BE A COLD DAY IN HELL BEFORE THEY TAKE ME OR ATLAH CHURCH DOWN.”
He added: The LGBQT have attacked The Lord’s House And The Lord’s Servant.
“This attack will fail like a pervert news reporter boarding a bus with a student math protractor. He will fall on the needle and die the death when I stand and preach The Word.”
Six Democratic presidential candidates have declined an invitation to speak at an anti-LGBT group’s summit in Iowa.
NBC News on Monday reported U.S. Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), former Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke and South Bend (Ind.) Mayor Pete Buttigieg have all declined invitations to speak at the Family Leader’s summit that is scheduled to take place on July 12.
“I welcome any opportunity to talk about how faith guides me, but I cannot — in good conscience — attend an event put on by an organization that preaches bigotry and sows hate against the LGBTQ community,” wrote Booker on his Twitter page. “That’s why I am declining an invitation to the Family Leader’s July 12 summit.”
I welcome any opportunity to talk about how faith guides me, but I cannot—in good conscience—attend an event put on by an organization that preaches bigotry and sows hate against the LGBTQ community. That’s why I am declining an invitation to the Family Leader’s July 12 summit.15.8K7:44 AM – Apr 29, 2019Twitter Ads info and privacy2,710 people are talking about this
Buttigieg press secretary Chris Meagher told NBC News the campaign “will be declining this invitation.”
The Family Leader on its website says it also invited former Vice President Biden and U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to the summit. Media reports indicate Sanders and Warren have also declined the invitation.
“The Family Leadership Summit traditionally extends invitations to national leaders from the church, culture and government to speak to Iowa’s faith voters,” reads a press release on the organization’s website. “In the past, those invitations have included prominent figures from both political parties.”
Bob Vander Plaats, the group’s CEO, is among the country’s most prominent social conservatives.
The Family Leader asked presidential candidates to sign a pledge ahead of the 2012 Iowa caucuses that included a statement against marriage rights for same-sex couples. Vander Plaats has also made controversial comments about homosexuality.
Vander Plaats told NBC News the candidates’ decision to decline his organization’s invitation is “calculated.”
“The message it sends is they want to run for president for a piece of America, not for all of America,” he said. “When they’re sending a vision of unity, we’re offering a chance to discuss unity in a civil and safe environment and have a good conversation about it. We think we’re providing a great opportunity. Obviously it’s their choice.”
The Department of Health and Human Services issued the new rules, extending rights for religious objection against an alleged “culture of hostility to conscience concerns in health care.”
It advises healthcare professionals: “You have the right under Federal law to decline to perform, assist in the performance of, refer for, undergo, or pay for certain health care‐related treatments, research, or services (such as abortion or assisted suicide, among others) that violate your conscience, religious beliefs, or moral convictions.”
Nancy Pelosi: Trump rules are ‘bigoted, downright deadly’
In a statement, Pelosi repeated concerns from equal rights groups, who fear the provision is tantamount to a license to discriminate against LGBT+ people.
The Democratic leader said: “These bigoted rules are immoral, deeply discriminatory and downright deadly, greenlighting open discrimination in health care against LGTBQ Americans and directly threatening the well-being of millions.
“Make no mistake: this is an open license to discriminate against Americans who already face serious, systemic discrimination.
“Since Day One, this Administration has waged a cruel campaign of intolerance and discrimination targeting the civil rights of our most vulnerable communities.
“House Democrats fully, flatly reject these attacks on LGBTQ Americans and on the rights of all Americans to get the health care they need and will fight these hateful actions.”
Pelosi recently vowed to pass the Equality Act, a bill that would introduce federal protections outlawing discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity for the first time.
Her criticism of the healthcare discrimination rules echo those of LGBT+ campaigners.
Human Rights Campaign Government Affairs Director David Stacy said: “The Trump-Pence administration’s latest attack threatens LGBTQ people by permitting medical providers to deny critical care based on personal beliefs.
“The administration’s decision puts LGBTQ people at greater risk of being denied necessary and appropriate health care solely based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. Everyone deserves access to medically necessary care and should never be turned away because of who they are or who they love.”
GLAAD tweeted: “The Trump Administration essentially wants to hand people a license to discriminate against LGBTQ people.”
The ACLU added: “Trump’s HHS issued a rule today allowing for discrimination in health care when there is a ‘moral or religious objection.’
“Preventing people from accessing critical medical care may endanger people’s lives, especially trans people and those seeking reproductive care.”
Following global condemnation, Brunei has announced it will not enforce the death penalty as a punishment for gay sex.
The small country in Southeast Asia was met with a great deal of criticism after announcing on 3 April that it will uphold Sharia Law. With this, they would be punishing sodomy, adultery, and rape with death, including by stoning. Numerous corporations, governments, rights groups, and high-profile individuals like Richard Branson, Sir Elton John, and George Clooney have come out against Brunei’s new law.
Backtracking
Now, the nation’s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah has backtracked. He stated that the death penalty would not be enforced in the implementation of the Syariah Penal Code Order (SPCO).
Crimes such as trafficking and premeditated murder are already punished by the death penalty in Brunei. However, the country has not carried out an execution since the 1990s, according to the Independent. Interestingly, a UN report states that the nation hasn’t executed anyone since 1957.
‘I am aware that there are many questions and misperceptions [sic] with regard to the implementation of the SPCO. However, we believe that once these have been cleared, the merit of the law will be evident,’ Sultan Bolkiah said in a statement ahead of the Muslim holiday of Ramadan.
‘As evident for more than two decades, we have practiced a de facto moratorium on the execution of death penalty for cases under the common law. This will also be applied to cases under the SPCO, which provides a wider scope for remission.’
In a unique turn of events, the Sultan’s office released a full English translation of his speech. This is not something the nation of Brunei commonly does.
‘Both the common law and the Syariah [sic] law aim to ensure peace and harmony of the country,’ the Sultan said. ‘They are also crucial in protecting the morality and decency of the country as well as the privacy of individuals.’
Anything else?
The Independent reports that Brunei has signed the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. However, it has not yet been ratified in the nation.
Under internationally-recognized human rights law, all forms of corporal punishment (including stoning, whipping, and amputation) are barred.
Iowa Republicans have launched an eleventh-hour plot to cut off funding for transgender people’s healthcare.
Republicans in the Iowa Senate launched a surprise attack on Friday (April 26), quietly slipping in an amendment to a crucial healthcare funding bill taking aim at transgender people.
Iowa Republicans ‘slip in’ amendment to cut off transgender healthcare funding
The amendment, penned by Senator Mark Costello, carves a broad exemption into non-discrimination healthcare laws, stipulating that civil rights measures “shall not require any state or local government unit or tax-supported district to provide for sex reassignment surgery or any other cosmetic, reconstructive, or plastic surgery procedure related to transsexualism, hermaphroditism, gender identity disorder, or body dysmorphic disorder.”
LGBT+ rights campaigners say the provisions are a “deliberate and brazen attempt to quietly rollback the rights of transgender Iowans,” handing officials the power to indefinitely block transgender healthcare provisions.
The bill had already cleared the Iowa House before the amendment was slipped in, meaning the funding bill has been cleared to head to to the desk of Governor Kim Reynolds despite calls for a vote in the lower chamber on stripping the amendment.
Campaigners hit out at ‘disturbing’ attack on trans people
ACLU of Iowa executive director Mark Stringer said: “The amendment to the Health and Human Services budget bill is dangerous and harmful. It risks people’s health and lives to score political points.
“Banning Medicaid coverage for gender-affirming surgery would bring significant harm to people who rely on Medicaid and who desperately need this surgery. This is a matter of life and death.
“This cruel amendment has no basis in medicine or science. Every major medical association agrees gender dysphoria is a serious medical condition and that surgical treatment is medically necessary for some transgender people.
“That includes the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the National Association of Social Workers, and the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH).
“It is a clear violation of equal protection under the Iowa Constitution because it would discriminate against people simply because they are transgender.”
The bill also seeks to block sex education funding from going to Planned Parenthood, which Stringer warns would “be extremely detrimental for our state and would likely reduce the progress that has been made in reducing the teenage pregnancy rate, among other positive gains in sex education.”
JoDee Winterhof of Human Rights Campaign added: “As a native Iowan, it’s disturbing to see lawmakers in my home state trying to roll back the clock on progress and discriminating against transgender people at the eleventh legislative hour.
“These lawmakers should be focusing on ways to improve the health and wellbeing of all Iowans, not targeting transgender people to win cheap political points.
“Now, Gov. Kim Reynolds should reject this patently discriminatory legislative language.”
Reynolds, a Republican, is yet to say whether she will sign the bill.
In a statement to KCCI, a spokesperson said: “The governor appreciates and will consider all feedback from Iowans on the various pieces of legislation that is now on her desk.
“In the coming weeks, she will review each bill with her policy team and then make a decision.”
Four transgender activists are suing the state of Tennessee over an anti-trans policy that prevents them from changing their gender on birth certificates.
A lawsuit was filed on behalf of the transgender activists last week by Lambda Legal in the US District Court in Nashville.
The lawsuit argues that refusing transgender people the right to change their gender on birth certs violates the Equal Protection and Due Process clauses of the constitution.
It also argues that forcing a transgender person to identify with a sex that is not who they are violates their freedom of speech under the First Amendment.SPONSORED
Transgender plaintiff: ‘I deserve to have identity documents that reflect who I am’
Lambda Legal has successfully taken similar cases against Puerto Rico and Idaho in the past, and currently has similar lawsuits pending in Ohio and Kansas.
One of the plaintiffs, Kayla Gore—who lives in Memphis—said the policy means that she has to carry incorrect identity documents.
“In times where anti-trans violence is escalating, especially against trans women of color, I deserve to have identity documents that reflect who I am and don’t put me in harm’s way—the same as anyone would want for themself and their loved ones,” Gore said.
“The State of Tennessee does not get to define who I am by incorrectly identifying me as female on my birth certificate.”
– Jason Scott, transgender plaintiff
The other plaintiffs in the case are Jason Scott and two others who are going by the initials L.G. and K.N.
Scott said that a birth certificate is “an extremely important and necessary document for every aspect of life.”
The 47-year-old who now lives in Seattle, but is from Tennessee, continued: “I have had to put up with a lot since I decided to live as the man that I am over twenty-five years ago. The State of Tennessee does not get to define who I am by incorrectly identifying me as female on my birth certificate.
“Getting a correct birth certificate in alignment with who I am would be life-changing.”
Anti-trans policy is ‘archaic and discriminatory’
Lambda Legal Senior Attorney Omar Gonzalez-Pagan said: “Tennessee’s birth certificate policy is archaic and discriminatory. By refusing to correct the birth certificates of transgender Tennesseans, Tennessee puts transgender people in harm’s way and violates our most fundamental constitutional rights.”
“47 states, DC, and Puerto Rico acknowledge the importance of allowing people to have access to essential government identity documents that accurately reflect their sex, consistent with their gender identity. It is time for Tennessee to join them.
“We won’t rest until we remove every governmental barrier to recognizing and respecting every transgender person’s identity in this country.”
A West Virginia assistant principal accused of harassing a transgender student won an appeal to get his job back Monday.
The Harrison County Board of Education voted to reinstate Lee Livengood after voting unanimously last month not to renew his contract at the end of a three-year probationary period, news outlets report.
County Schools Superintendent Mark Manchin said Monday’s decision was difficult and followed “a lot of discussion.”
In November, Livengood allegedly followed transgender teenager Michael Critchfield into the boys bathroom at Liberty High School and said, “You freak me out.” Critchfield said Livengood also ordered him to prove his gender by using a urinal.
The American Civil Liberties Union’s West Virginia chapter has pushed the county for diversity training to prevent similar incidents.
The ACLU said in a statement Monday that Livengood “has demonstrated he is incapable of conducting himself in a professional manner in any environment with children, and he has shown a troubling lack of remorse for his actions. We will be actively monitoring the situation to ensure Michael and the students of Harrison County are protected moving forward.”
Livengood’s attorney, Alex Shook, had argued that his client was unaware of Critchfield’s gender identity and was not told of an arrangement Critchfield had with the principal to use the boys restrooms.
According to Critchfield, the school band was preparing to take an after-school bus trip to Morgantown in November to watch a performance at West Virginia University. Critchfield said he went to the bathroom and checked to see if anyone was standing at a urinal before he went into a stall.
Livengood then opened the bathroom door and asked if any students were in the stall. Critchfield said he replied and when he left the stall, Livengood was standing in the bathroom doorway and blocked Critchfield from leaving.
Critchfield recalled Livengood repeatedly yelling, “Why are you in here? You shouldn’t be in here.”
Critchfield said he replied that it was his legal right to use that bathroom. He said Livengood used improper pronouns when referring to Critchfield and challenged him to use a urinal to prove that he was a boy.
The first time JayCee Cooper walked out onto the platform at a women’s powerlifting competition, everything else fell away: her years-long internal struggle over her gender identity, her decision to leave men’s sports when she began transitioning, her doubts that she would ever feel safe if she returned to competitions.
When she stepped out in front of a hundred people in the gym in Fort Collins, Colorado, last September, all she focused on was the barbell, which she hoisted off the ground. And then she heard the cheers of the crowd: “Come on JayCee!” She had found not only a sport, but also a home.
“In a world that wants to take away our power and strength,” Cooper, 31, said recently by phone from her home in Minneapolis, “powerlifting is a way to gain that strength back and feel powerful and feel ownership of our own lives. It helps us find strength within ourselves and helps us find strength within our bodies.”
Cooper signed up for more competitions, but, to her astonishment, USA Powerlifting, the sport’s biggest federation, told her that she could not compete in the women’s division because of her gender identity.
In an email, USA Powerlifting said she was denied because she had a “direct competitive advantage” over the other women who were competing.
“It took me aback,” Cooper said. “I didn’t want to put myself into a situation where I obviously wasn’t welcome.”
It was just the latest in a growing number of battles over the place of transgender women athletes in competitive sports.
As transgender women have become more visible and sought to participate in women’s sports, athletic organizing bodies have grappled with how to respond, and critics of their inclusion have grown increasingly vocal, as well.
In March, tennis legend Martina Navratilova apologized for calling trans women “cheats” in a Sunday Times op-ed in which she wrote that “letting men compete as women simply if they change their name and take hormones is unfair.” Weeks later, marathoner Paula Radcliffe told BBC Sport that it would be “naive” not to institute rules. In an interview with Sky News in April, Radcliffe said that if trans people were permitted to compete without regulations, it would be “the death of women’s sport.”
For transgender people watching this issue play out, the debate — often based more in bias and assumptions than in science — is dehumanizing. Those who seek to exclude transgender women from sports sometimes imply that the athletes are adopting their identity to gain an edge in competition, a suggestion many find offensive.
“They don’t understand what it means to be a trans person,” Chris Mosier, a competitive runner and cycler and the first known transgender athlete to make a men’s U.S. national team, said.
“The folks who are improperly reporting on this are making it seem like cis men are pretending to be women to dominate sports,” he added, referring to people who are assigned male at birth and identify as men. “I can say that the amount of discrimination, harassment and challenges trans people face in their everyday lives would never be offset by glory.”
‘IT’S BEEN A ROLLER-COASTER’
Before becoming a powerlifter, Cooper lifted weights as part of her training for other sports. As a teenager growing up in Clarkston, Michigan, she was on the U.S. junior national curling team, competed in track and field in high school and rowed in college.
But she never felt fully comfortable on those all-boys teams.
“It’s been a roller-coaster,” Cooper said. “One of the reasons I stepped away from curling was that I wasn’t being my authentic self, and I was super depressed, and I needed some time away to figure out what that meant for me.”
Four years ago, she began hormone replacement therapy as part of her transition. She now identifies as transfeminine, which she sees as a more expansive identity than simply female.
Cooper first came across powerlifting in high school, but didn’t decide to compete until last year while recuperating from a broken ankle, and she was struck by the sport’s simplicity and supportive atmosphere. In powerlifting, athletes are divided into categories by sex, age and weight, and they compete in three types of lifts: squat, bench press and deadlift. Each movement is a test of static strength, force and focus.
“The barbell for me has been a very empowering way to be in my body, which is politicized every waking second, connect with it, and feel like I’m achieving something,” Cooper said.
“It’s a very almost spiritual feeling in the sense that I’m carrying all of this trauma with me and I’m literally focusing all of that into the barbell. In that moment, I get to control what’s going on.”
To lower her testosterone levels, Cooper takes spironolactone, a drug that is also used to treat high blood pressure and can mask steroid use.
USA Powerlifting, which follows rules set by the World Anti-Doping Agency, requires athletes to apply for an exemption to compete while taking the drug. The group has granted exemptions to powerlifters who have taken spironolactone to treat acne or polycystic ovary syndrome, Larry Maile, USA Powerlifting’s president, said.
As part of her medication exemption application, Cooper provided documentation that her testosterone levels have remained under the International Olympic Committee’s accepted limit for two years. (USA Powerlifting falls under the International Powerlifting Federation, which adopted the IOC’s guidelines that allow transgender women to compete in women’s divisions provided their testosterone is below 10 nmol/L for at least 12 months.)
But in December, Cooper’s exemption request was denied. She was told she could not compete in the women’s division of powerlifting because she had a “competitive advantage” as a transgender woman, according to an email exchange obtained by NBC News between Cooper and Dr. Kristopher Hunt, the chair of USA Powerlifting’s committee that reviews applications for medical exemptions.
“Male-to-female transgenders are not allowed to compete as females in our static strength sport as it is a direct competitive advantage,” Hunt said in one email to Cooper.
Pressed for clarification, he wrote a follow-up. “The fact that transgender male to female individuals having gone through male puberty confer an unfair competitive advantage over non-transgender females,” he said.
In a phone interview, Maile defended the decision and said the organization’s policy of barring transgender women — as well as transgender men who take testosterone — was not new, though it was not posted on USA Powerlifting’s website until this winter after Cooper applied for the exemption. Maile said that the IOC’s guidelines ultimately give organizations the discretion to make their own decisions about fair play. To reach the decision, he said USA Powerlifting researched the physical differences between men and women in terms of muscle density, connective tissue and frame shape.
“We’ve been referred to as bigoted and transphobic and a whole lot of less kind things, but it’s not an issue of that for us,” Maile said. “It’s an issue that we have to consider dispassionately and make our best judgment collectively about what the impact on fair play is for us, and that’s the basis on which we’ve proceeded.”
He added that powerlifting “is really unique, because we’re a high strength and low technique sport” — so the physiology of the competitors is particularly important.
Cooper doesn’t buy that argument, noting that women’s bodies come in all shapes and sizes, which may confer advantages for different sports.
“You look at a WNBA player, they’re pushing 6 feet versus someone doing gymnastics who’s 5 feet tall,” she said. “Their bodies are built completely differently. That’s what sports are about.”
‘THE SCIENCE IS IN ITS INFANCY’
The policies governing transgender athletes vary by sport.
The NCAA has policies similar to the International Olympic Committee and does not require athletes to undergo gender-confirming surgery, while USA Gymnastics does require it under some circumstances, according to research compiled by TransAthlete, a database of professional, recreational, college and K-12 sports’ policies on trans athletes.
Others aim to be more inclusive. USA Hockey, for example, offers options for nonbinary athletes who do not identify as male or female, as well as guidance for trans athletes.
While opponents of inclusion point to the “bigger, faster, stronger” argument as the basis of their fear that transgender women are taking over women’s sports, there are few examples of trans women who’ve excelled at a national or world level, according to Cyd Zeigler, co-founder of OutSports, an outlet that reports on LGBTQ athletes.
The scientific research on transgender athletes is in the early stages, and there is disagreement among experts about how to determine fair rules of competitions.
“There’s no simple or even complex biological test you can apply that tells you who’s a man and who’s a woman,” Roger Pielke Jr., director of the Sports Governance Center at the University of Colorado, said.
In the absence of such a test, testosterone levels are often used as a proxy to determine whether trans women are eligible to compete in women’s leagues. There is evidence that transgender women who are on hormone therapy have lower muscle mass and less aerobic ability than they did before, said Joanna Harper, a scientist who studies gender-diverse athletes and advises the International Olympic Committee. In a 2015 study she published on trans women who are distance runners, Harper, who is a trans woman and runner herself, found that after being on hormone therapy the women were running more than 10 percent slower.
But testosterone is an imperfect metric. Even among cisgender men and women, there is variance in the amount that is considered normal.
To deny Cooper “the right to compete based on ridiculous fear is completely unfounded,” Harper said.
‘TRANS LIFTERS BELONG HERE’
At the Minnesota State Championship in February — a USA Powerlifting meet where Cooper hoped to compete — almost a dozen athletes and 20 people in the audience protested her exclusion, according to Maxwell Poessnecker, a transmasculine-identified lifter from Saint Paul, Minnesota. Flanked by signs and wearing T-shirts that said, “I support trans lifters” and “trans lifters belong here,” the athletes stood on the lifting platform without competing to show their disapproval of the policy, Poessnecker said.
From little leagues to the Olympics, questions over transgender inclusion will continue to surface. Advocates who say concerns about “competitive fairness” are often rooted in gender stereotypes and scientific research is lacking believe policies should be as inclusive as possible.
“It’s hard to call anything model when it requires an individual to be tested and questioned,” said Breanna Diaz, a powerlifter and co-director of Pull for Pride, a charity deadlifting event that benefits homeless LGBTQ youth. If athletes “have a sincerely held gender identity, that should be sufficient,” she said.
Cooper, who co-directs Pull for Pride, hopes to use her experience with powerlifting as a way to drive the conversation about trans athletes.
On May 9, USA Powerlifting’s national governing body will meet to discuss its transgender inclusion policy.
“I really do love this sport,” Cooper said, “and it’s not fair to genetically eliminate an entire group of people.”
Congratulations on your marriage! After spending the last several months on planning, your special day and the honeymoon have come and gone, and now you’re wondering what’s next. Whether you’re planning on buying a home, having a child, or simply enjoying life as a married couple, it should all start with you and your spouse establishing a financial roadmap, which includes assessing paycheck tax withholding and updating financial beneficiaries.
The first step in establishing a roadmap as a married couple involves your taxes, specifically your paycheck withholding taxes. Due in part to the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017,” signed into law by President Trump, some have experienced confusion and other unpleasant surprises because of changes to the withholding tables. While I always advise reaching out to a tax professional, here is a quick way to do it yourself:
Step one: Determine if it is best to file your taxes married jointly or married separately. This will depend on how close in salary each spouse makes. There are many ‘marriage calculators’ available to you, but the simplest calculator is hosted by the Tax Policy Center.
Step two: The IRS website offers a withholding calculator that determines how much tax you should actually withhold based on your filing status. It’s important to make sure to account for any dividends/interest and short-term capital gains. The calculator will tell you what filing status, how many withholdings (usually 0 or 1) and if you should request an extra specific dollar amount to be withheld. It’s important to note that the IRS expects you to withhold around 90% of your tax due (although this tax season has been different) or face a penalty. To ensure you’re on the right path, it may be smart to do another check-up around November to make sure you’re on track.
Once you have given the IRS calculator’s recommendations to your employer’s payroll team, you will most likely have a new take home pay amount. From here, you’ll be able to use your new combined take home pay to determine your monthly budget.
As newlyweds, approaching budgeting will be a little different than when you were single. For many people, merging finances after being previously financially independent can cause uneasiness. I recommend creating one family budget – this includes housing, groceries, and, most importantly, joint social expenses (evenings out, travel, etc.). To help manage these expenses create a joint cash and credit account, so both partners can see how the family budget is doing. Split the total expected expense in an amount that seems fair relative to each spouse’s income. Many payroll departments allow you to deposit a portion of income into more than one bank account, which makes things a lot simpler.
The balance of your paycheck remains yours to spend or save – and hopefully surprise your spouse with something nice every once and awhile. Overtime, many couples further consolidate their finances, but the above is a good way to begin your life together.
Finally, don’t forget to compare your respective employee benefit plans. Update any beneficiary information on your retirement plans (don’t stop maxing out those contributions!) and determine who has the best health coverage. Do not just look at the per paycheck cost, but rather weigh the different deductibles, health network type (HMO, PPO, etc.), and total coverage. I won’t lie – it can be very confusing, but your human resources representative or current insurance carrier’s customer service are highly trained in describing each policy’s features.
Just remember, financial planning at the start of your marriage will ensure a strong foundation for the future.
(Information contained herein is for informational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice or recommendations. Advice may only be provided after entering into an advisory agreement with an Advisor.)