<p>Various States do give greater estate tax breaks based on family relationships. Most grant the largest break for married couples.</p>
<p>How long before marriage can be amongst 3 people… or relatives.
Just throwin’ it out there… been a lot of discussion on that too</p>
<p>abasket: haha, I love Google!</p>
<p>ldavis: isn’t it legal in more states to marry a relative than it is to marry someone of the same sex? How ridiculous is that.</p>
<p>My point is that the government should not be creating benefits based on which relationships involve sex and which do not. If you are living together in the same household, marriage or no, file some sort of paperwork with the county or state and become a domestic unit. Base benefits on that. If it’s wrong for the government to discriminate against same sex households, then it’s also wrong for the government to discriminate against other living arrangements, whether it be two sisters living together, three unrelated people, etc. etc. The two sisters could be raising one or another’s kids together as could the household of three. It just seems to me it’s none of the government’s business to define marriage or what is a family unit.</p>
<p>And then there’s the “marriage penalty”… Maybe that evens it all out. </p>
<p>Also, if there are inheritance difficulties people can form a trust to avoid estate taxes. Of course you will have to know to do that, hire an attorney, etc., but if there’s a large estate involved it would be the responsible thing to do. If the estate is small, estate taxes shouldn’t apply IMO.</p>
<p>hey… if you are going to allow courts ie: humans decide the definition of marriage, anything is possible… just sayin’</p>
<p>^^ so then the plural Mormons out there (who fought so hard for Prop 8) will be FOR this decision since it brings us closer to legal polygamy? Somehow I don’t think so.</p>
<p>Human’s have always decided the definition of marriage and the definition of marriage has changed radically over time. Nothing new here.</p>
<p>I am beyond thrilled with today’s decisions. It was extra special to find out that DOMA had been knocked down in a message from my son who is gay. The fight continues, of course, but today has been a very, very good day.</p>
<p>I am especially thrilled for same-sex military families, who are finally going to be treated as all other military families are. Yes!!!</p>
<p>So thrilled. I think, “How far we have come in such a short time.” Meanwhile, Fang Jr (and probably most of your college-aged kids) are thinking, Why was this ever an issue, of course two single adults who are in love should be able to marry.</p>
<p>ldavis: So who should decide? The Bible? I don’t want to get into the whole religion thing but who else would define marriage but humans?</p>
<p>Fang, my (straight) D has been fired up about this for that very reason. To her it’s completely nonsensical to bar gay marriage. “Why do some people get SO upset about who OTHER people marry?” is her attitude. Of course, she has gay friends, as Fang Jr probably does, as many (most?) college kids do. When you actually know some actual gay people, homophobic myths lose their credibility.</p>
<p>CF, that’s where I’ve been for the last ten years. I can’t fathom why this is even an issue.</p>
<p>However, I was vividly reminded today on Facebook that not all my age support this and many still see marriage equality as a personal attack on their religious freedom.</p>
<p>Romani, I relate to both things. </p>
<p>My very close friend is Christian and thinks that being gay is wrong. She has lesbian friends that she genuinely cares about but she believes that they are fighting “demons” or some other nonsense. We steer away from discussing our beliefs because we vary greatly in those aspects.</p>
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<p>If the only valid purpose of marriage is to produce biological children of the two spouses, then you are correct. Do you actually believe that? What about heterosexual marriage between partners who are too old to have children? Or choose not to have children? Or cannot have children? Are those illegitimate marriages? Second-class marriages?</p>
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<p>Mainline LDS now forbids polygamy (and excommunicates those who practice it), though some small breakaway factions practice it.</p>
<p>In terms of legal status, there are a number of countries where polygamous (almost always polygynous, as opposed to polyandrous or polygynandrous) marriages are recognized civilly. Note that some countries where polygamous marriages are otherwise not allowed do allow pre-existing polygamous marriages performed in other countries.</p>
<p>[Legal</a> status of polygamy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_status_of_polygamy]Legal”>Legality of polygamy - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>When WA legalized domestic partnerships for same sex couples, it also starting recognizing them for same and opposite sex couples when one partner is aged 62+. This allows older residents to “love again” without jeopardizing their incomes as many receive payments based on the past earnings of their deceased spouse. These domestic partnerships have gotten rave reviews from seniors.</p>
<p>I predict that the next state to have marriage equality will be Nevada. State legislators were planning on passing it in the past session, but ran out of time. The gaming and tourism industries have also been spending lots of money to promote LGBT tourism. Almost all of the casinos on the Strip score perfect 100s on the Corporate Equality Index and the word’s largest gay club just opened in Downtown Las Vegas. </p>
<p>Living in one of the states affected by the rulings, I’m overjoyed to hear that the Federal government will recognize my future marriage, be it to a man or a woman. The IRS already recognized the community property rights of same sex couples living in WA, CA, and NV, still requiring them to file as single, but allowing them to divide their incomes 50/50 and fill out their taxes based on those numbers. This change will make filing taxes easier and makes many other legal activities possible, especially when one of the spouses is not a US citizen. The YouTube video “Missing Husband” is a very emotional example of the latter situation under DOMA.</p>
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<p>Isn’t it the case that, in some aspects, the parts of Pennsylvania that are not Philadelphia and Pittsburgh or the nearby areas may be more conservative than Alabama? (no idea if that is true with respect to marriage)</p>
<p>There is a handy (updated) map on this page:
[Same-sex</a> marriage in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage_in_the_United_States]Same-sex”>Same-sex marriage in the United States - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>How can you be more conservative than Alabama? 
Once you get out of the cities and suburbs, it’s pretty darn conservative. Even where I live, a county that borders Philadelphia, you have a significant number of people who really think America is a Christian nation and gay marriage will be the downfall of the nation. I’m talking teenagers saying stuff like this. My daughter has tried to debate classmates (and we know debating politics usually doesn’t work out too well) and has been told, literally, to f off. Ahh, tolerance. I’m always surprised just how conservative these suburbs are.</p>
<p>I wonder when the “fight” will end? I hear various people saying “the fight’s not over yet”. Will the fight be over when same sex couples are recognized by the federal government? What do same sex couples want? And when they get it…will this all be over?</p>
<p>Perhaps it’s when they’re legally considered as the same as a man-woman relationship…but I have a feeling another phase of social equality will start…</p>