Since same-sex marriage was legalized in the U.S. in June 2015 by The Supreme Court of the United States, investment firms, banks and the media have done a disservice to the queer community. It's hard to find resources that talk about the financial nuances of the queer community and the importance of a financially strong queer community.
Understanding Queer Money
Many of us are experiencing new rights and privileges and we don't fully understand them and their affects on us. What are the consequences of getting married to someone with debt? How does getting married affect estate planning? How does Social Security affect the surviving partner of a same-sex marriage?
The answers to such questions are hard to find unless we pay fees, often exorbitant, to financial advisors, planners or attorneys, many of whom don't understand same-sex relationships.
This is a problem for queer individuals, queer couples and the queer community. After same-sex marriage became legal across the U.S., the fight for queer equality has migrated to the state level and many discriminatory rules, regulations and precedence have yet to be updated.
Because the queer community has not yet achieved full equal rights and because laws for same-sex couples and parents from state to state are so disparate, we in the queer community must get our money in order. We must become financially strong individuals and couples so that we can be a financially strong community and continue our fight for equality that has not yet been won.
Queer Money Meets Elizabeth Schwartz
We're fighting the financial charge and one woman is fighting the legal charge. On this Queer Money, we talk with attorney Elizabeth Schwartz. Liz shares important information about how the queer community can button up our parental rights and protections, wills, estates and trusts, living wills and more.
Liz says, it's the responsibility of those of us who are privileged and live in parts of the country that have employment protections for queer equality and where we can hold our same-sex partner's hand to fight for those in the parts of the country where it's harder to be queer.
Liz is a contributor to The Huffington Post and is the author of Before I Do: A Legal Guide to Marriage, Gay or Otherwise, in which she teaches us how to "marry deliberately".
