Discrimination

I really don't think it is the State's business who you want to leave your pension money to. If you want to leave it to your cats, or your wife or your best friend or your gay partner, you should be able to do so. But apparently, you can leave it to the cats more easily than you can leave it to your gay spouse and that is very wrong. The laws need to change in this country so same sex couples are not discriminated against. This kind of thing would be intolerable if it was done against any other kind of people. Just fill in the blank: Blacks, Jews, women, Muslims, Japanese, whatever. Society would not stand for it. But when it comes to gays, people think it is okay to discriminate and ostracize. I don't know how the US can call itself a democracy and a free society when an entire group of people is discriminated against by its own laws simply because of their sexual orientation. It is barbaric.

BOSTON - Former Rep. Gerry Studds, the first openly gay member of Congress, was married to another man in Massachusetts at the time of his death, but the federal government will not pay death benefits to his spouse.

Studds married Dean Hara in 2004 after gay marriage was legalized in Massachusetts. But Hara will not be eligible to receive any portion of Studds' estimated $114,337 annual pension because the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act bars the federal government from recognizing Studds' marriage.

Under federal law, pensions can be denied only to lawmakers' same-sex partners and people convicted of espionage or treason.

This is despicable.