Didn’t Edie Windsor take on this problem and bash it into the ground? Denied Survivor’s Benefits After Wife’s Death, Texas Widow Files a Federal Suit – NYTimes.com.
It begins:
Kathleen A. Murphy was left a widow when her wife, from a marriage in Massachusetts, died of cancer in 2012.
Last year, Ms. Murphy, 62, applied to the Social Security Administration for spousal survivor’s benefits and the standard lump-sum death payment. But she was turned down because the couple lived in Texas — one of the 18 states, as of this week, that does not recognize same-sex marriages.
That decision, and the policy behind it to follow marriage laws in the state of residence to determine marital status, were challenged in federal court on Tuesday as unconstitutional forms of discrimination in a suit brought on Ms. Murphy’s behalf by Lambda Legal, a New York-based gay rights group.
Hard to comprehend how Texas can deny Social Security benefits, since Social Security is a federal program.
Oh Texans out there: you do realize your state is wasting your tax money on these passé lawsuits, right?