Quote:
Originally Posted by janmcn
Sadly nothing changes for residents of Florida right away. Since 2008, Florida's constitution has banned same-sex marriage. Gov Scott's quote from the front page of today's Tampa Bay Times said "It impacted federal law, not state law...As the governor of this state, I'll uphold the law of the land, and that's the law of our state".
Why would any same-sex married couple continue to live in Florida, when they could receive the federal benefits if they lived in any of the 12 states plus DC where same-sex marriage is allowed?
|
Maybe they would choose to live in Florida because of the
financial benefit of not having state income tax.....
....and because they LIKE it here with ocean AND beautiful Gulf beaches, constant sunshine, friendly temperatures, nice people, international mix of people, etc. etc. etc.
Do gay couples really choose which state to live in based on federal
financial benefits, (such as drawing a spousal Social Security check even if unearned by working him/herself and drawing half of the spouse's benefit because they've are married)?
It seems to me that it is
financial and
political-party power gain that is being sought more than a legal marriage vow and commitment and promise-keeping. I've known gay couples all my life who have lived together for decades, and they have not acted down-trodden, stepped-on, kicked around, nor unable to be happy without a legal civil marriage license, even in the 1960's in the midwest which is overall fairly conservative.
The fact that these couples were accepted and people left them alone was because lots of us were friends/acquaintances with them and people would say "They're nice people and they're not hurting anybody, so as long as they don't make advances at me it's their business". I think political party power play is at the heart of a lot of this angst.