Implications of Same-Sex Couples Being Denied the Right to Marriage: A Look at Federal Income Tax Structure and Social Security Benefits

Authors

Adam M. Gray '06, Illinois Wesleyan University

Abstract

Much recent news has focused on promoting traditional lifestyles and banning or discouraging all others. However, an overview of society shows that the proportion of traditional families are becoming fewer and fewer. These traditional families are those consisting of one man and one woman living together with the possibility of children, either biological or adopted. Non-traditional families include divorced families, single-parent families, opposite-sex partners, and same-sex partners. The US government legally recognizes one type of family: opposite-sex, married partners. This recognition provides tax breaks, insurance benefits and life and death decision making for the spouse and children. If this is the case, what are the economic consequences for same-sex couples?

Recommended Citation

Gray '06, Adam M. (2006) "Implications of Same-Sex Couples Being Denied the Right to Marriage: A Look at Federal Income Tax Structure and Social Security Benefits," The Park Place Economist: Vol. 14
Available at: https://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/parkplace/vol14/iss1/12