Louisiana: Gay widower denied Social Security survivor benefits
Source: Associated Press
By KEVIN McGILL, Associated Press · Wednesday, August 3, 2016
NEW ORLEANS (AP) A civil rights group said Tuesday it is seeking Social Security survivor benefits for a Louisiana man who legally married his husband in California before a 2015 Supreme Court ruling established a nationwide right to same-sex marriage.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana said Gerald Allen Beem and William Floyd Conley had lived together since 1982. Louisiana residents since 1997, they were legally married in California in 2014.
Conley died in February 2015, before the Supreme Court decision. The ACLU said in a news release that the Social Security Administration in Lafayette denied benefits to Beem even after the court decision.
Gerald Beem is the surviving spouse of William Conley, and is entitled to the same social security benefits of any other surviving spouse, Marjorie Esman, Executive Director of the ACLU of Louisiana, said in a news release. The law is clear that his marriage must be recognized. Mr. Beem, having lost his husband and his partner of more than three decades, deserves the respect that any other spouse would receive.
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Read more: http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2016/08/louisiana-gay-widower-denied-social-security-survivor-benefits/
anoNY42
(670 posts)paid by LA due to conservative tantrums...
yeoman6987
(14,449 posts)Social security is a federal program. Now he could have gone to a local SS office but they are not bottom line.
mahatmakanejeeves
(57,604 posts)Last edited Wed Aug 3, 2016, 08:04 PM - Edit history (1)
I mean, you can't get married one day and die the next, and your survivor is eligible for benefits, right? The marriage - opposite sex, same sex - has to have been in effect for a while.
I'm probably wrong. Someone will let me know.
spinbaby
(15,090 posts)Looks like they were married only about a year, if that. They were together long enough, though, that you might be able to argue common-law marriage.
TexasBushwhacker
(20,214 posts)So since the husband died in February 2015, the question is when did they marry in California in 2014.