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DOMA denies equal tax treatment

 

Editor, Index-Tribune:

    

  In my quoted statement in the Proposition 8 article (Index-Tribune, Feb. 10), my comments about the tax and property complications of marriage are specifically about the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which does not recognize our state marriage. We pay extra federal taxes to have our spouses on our medical insurance. We do not have Social Security spousal inheritance rights, and we are subject to property liens in the case of deceased partners who have Medi-Cal expenses through long-term care, which has caused widows and widowers to lose their homes.

  For heterosexual couples, Medi-Cal expenses for the deceased spouse are not assessed until the second spouse passes away. Due to DOMA, same-sex parents, even when in a state marriage, simply have fewer resources to raise their children compared to a heterosexual couple with the same income.

  Perhaps it will take a cultural change to civil unions for all, and religious marriage as an option, for the tide to lift all our boats.

  Veda Lewis

  Sonoma