DOLLARS AND SENSE

QUOTES: The Government Shortchanges LGBTs, So LGBTs Should Care About Occupy Wall Street

“LGBT families are more likely to be poor. Contrary to stereotypes, children living in same-sex-couple households are twice as likely to live in poverty as children being raised by married heterosexual households. Same-sex couples of color raising children are more likely to be poor than white same-sex couples raising children.

Children fall through the safety net. Because many safety net programs apply antiquated definitions of family, a child with LGBT parents might be denied benefits provided to his or her non-LGBT counterpart simply because the child’s parents are LGBT. Most government safety net programs use a narrow definition of family tied to marital status, which often excludes same-sex partners and non-legally recognized parents and children. The result is that financially struggling families with LGBT or unmarried parents cannot accurately reflect their household size or economic resources and may be denied adequate assistance.

LGBT families face a higher tax burden. A series of tax credits and deductions are designed to help all families, regardless of economic circumstance, ease the financial costs of raising children. Tax law, however, also uses a narrow definition of family that excludes LGBT families. This exclusion usually results in a significantly higher tax burden for LGBT families.”

– A report from the Center for American Progress quoted in Karen Ocamb’s “The Occupy Movement and Why LGBTs Should Care” on LGBTPOV.

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