Constance McMillen, LGBT America’s prom queen, was invited to the Pride Reception at the White House hosted by President Obama.
We hope that this reception will change the conversation, not just be an honor party, but a party where conversations and minds will be changed for a greater good.
According to the Advocate, the White House will hold a reception on June 22 in honor of Pride month. There really are no facts on who is invited, if the President and First Family will be in attendance, and White House staffers are keeping silent.
….Contingent on Pentagon Review. Since this bill to Repeal DADT is now passed, it now must go to review by the Pentagon before the repealing is implemented. So even though a ‘repeal’ has occurred in the House and the Senate, it still has a major hurdle through the Pentagon. Pentagon may be continue to ban Gays and Lesbians from serving openly.
This is good so far, but we still need a concrete positive conclusion post Pentagon review!
Dorothy Height overcame adversity at a time when African-Americans were not granted equal rights. Her last name reflects how she soared went in life. When many women, no matter what race, did not commonly continue education past high school or lower, Height received a masters degree in educational psychology from NYU in 1933!
Ms. Dorothy Height witnessed every civil rights march and of course participated as well. She was a top advisor to many. Height had the attention of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, President Eisenhower, and President Johnson. What truly touched us was that she advised Elizabeth Birch, former president of the HRC for LGBT rights when ENDA had its initial vote in ‘96.
Height died at 98 on April 20th. She witnessed woman and African-Americans fight for their rights when they had little to then see an African-American man become President of the United States. Because of people like Dorothy Height, a legacy will be left full of leaders and citizens of all genders, races, creeds, colors, and religions, a who will continue to work together to create a more perfect union.
How filing our taxes as a Gay married couple are different from heterosexual, married couples:
As we all know the federal government does NOT recognize us as a married couple even though WE ARE and it doesn’t even matter where we live. Even though we are in California (one of the 18,000 legally married couples). We will pay more in taxes and receive fewer benefits than married, opposite-sex couples receive. Only point number 1 and we are already getting heated.
In regards to tax preparation. Differences in state and federal filing rules mean that married, same-sex couples must calculate 2 sets of state tax returns. Guess what? That’s more time spent on those returns and, for same-sex couples using an accountant, that’s more of an expense.
Tax punch number 3 comes through employer-based health insurance benefits. Unlike coverage for opposite-sex spouses, benefits for legally married, same-sex spouses are taxed as income to the employee.
For same-sex couples who have real estate, they can file their real state returns as a married couple! Oh but wait, since federal law prohibits them from filing their federal tax return as a married couple, the forms require tax calculations from state returns completed as if they were single.
Equal contest holders, Crate & Barrel are holding a contest to give a happy couple the chance to have a dream $100,000 Crate & Barrel wedding. Right now, DC couple Gregory & Jonathan are in 2nd place! They have over 15,000+ votes and the top couple have over 19,000. There is only a couple days left, but they can win this, so please vote HERE. When we got married, we registered at Crate & Barrel and they were wonderful with assisting us with choosing our items for our registry. We got some lovely things from our friends and family. This would be such a positive thing for Gregory & Jonathan and all same-sex couples, lets make this happen for them! Their love endured a heartbreaking battle, to read more click HERE
Read their synopsis on their love story after the jump
After the Gay & Lesbian marriage became legal in DC, co-founder Jerry Greenfield attended the wedding of a Gay couple who were married at the Ben & Jerry’s in their Georgetown shop location!
The happy couple are Keith Spangler-Vellios and Andreas Vellios who married in the shop. The newlyweds have been together for 11 years and have 2 year-old twins.