On Tax Day, April 15, clergy are gathering outside Atlanta's regional post office to protest the financial and legal inequities facing their gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender parishioners. To some it might be surprising to see faith leaders standing up for economic justice. Aren't faith leaders supposed to be concerned with our souls? Why are they coming out on tax day to talk about our pocket books?
As faith leaders it's time to clarify what we mean by economic justice and why it is a fundamentally religious issue. Economic justice is not about getting a tax break to go to the Bahamas. Economic justice is about the life and death decisions that affect all of us. It's about who will take care of the kids if a partner suffers from an unforeseen illness; it's about older LGBT couples making the gut wrenching decision to go 'back in the closet' in order to get assisted living care; it's about establishing a nest egg for our partner and children when we die; in short it's about our capacity to make loving and informed decisions about our lives and the lives of those we love. Any pastor, rabbi, imam, or faith leader will tell you when their congregants fear their ability to care for themselves and their families, their spiritual lives suffer and the whole communities is affected.
When we create a tax system that unfairly burdens LGBT people, our whole country suffers.
Across the country, millions of same sex couples face significant financial burdens and legal hurdles in building a secure future for their families. As a result of the Defense of Marriage Act, which bars the federal government from recognizing legal same sex marriages, these couples are denied access to the more than 1,100 federal benefits and protections available to married couples. This means among other things, that a partner often can't take time off to care for a loved one without risking their job, they can't provide Survivor Benefits to their partner or children despite paying into Social Security for a life time, they can't get equal pay for equal contribution as a federal employee or veteran, and they can't include their spouse or children on their employer-based health plan without facing significant tax penalties.
I have seen firsthand the struggles that marriage inequality causes. In my capacity as an ordained minister and executive director of Metropolitan Community Churches world-wide, I regularly witness the effects economic disparities have on the emotional and spiritual lives of LGBT people. These gaps are never more obvious than in those situations where we find ourselves with a loved one in the emergency room at the hospital, at the Red Cross shelter, on the phone when a lay-off occurs, when a chronic health condition dictates a move to assisted living, at the funeral home or when a break up in relationship occurs.
As a person of deep Christian faith, I am often frustrated by the unnecessary and unfair burdens we place on LGBT families, particularly in hospitals and courts when they are already forced to cope with traumatic life events. As difficult as these situations are, I find myself even more frustrated by the denial and ignorance of the economic plight LGBT families face. We have to stop perpetuating stereotypes that all LGBT people are wealthy latte drinkers living in affluent neighborhoods. We come from all different economic and racial brackets, with all different kinds of families. And, as with all injustice, when economic discrimination is allowed to stand, it is the LGBT families where members are earning minimum wages, don't have access to health insurance, and are supporting children who shoulder the largest burden.
Additionally, without legal safeguards, when catastrophes happen, LGBT families of all financial brackets often are hit hardest. During Hurricane Katrina, MCC churches were a first responder to LGBT and straight people who were displaced by the storm. One of two dads en route from New Orleans to Texas were stopped by a state patrol car, accused of kidnapping and molesting their own children and separated from the children for a harrowing three days until they could produce legal adoption papers lost in the aftermath of the storm. This may not seem like an economic justice issue, but it is. Just to prevent horrifying mistakes like this to happen, LGBT people find themselves in the position to need pre-paid legal ³hot-lines² and to digitally make copies of their adoption papers and wills simply to prove that their relationships are 'legitimate.' Marriage equality would go a long way to ending these unnecessary precautions.
When we aren't honest about the economic and legal burdens we place on LGBT families we are frankly getting in God's way. Jesus asked us to love and care for one another. When we remain ignorant or uncaring about how our LGBT families are harmed, we are not acting as Jesus would have us; we are not acting like the children of God that we all are.
