Aging issues can be tougher on gays

[foxfeet]

By Tom Watkins, CNN
March 17, 2010 6:12 p.m. EDT

CNN) -- Last Christmas, Missouri State Highway Patrol Cpl. Dennis Engelhard was putting flares near a minor accident on a snowy road in Eureka when he was hit by a car and killed.

"I'd had a premonition about it," said Kelly Glossip, 43, Engelhard's domestic partner of 15 years.

The openly gay couple had discussed what might happen if Engelhard were to die in Missouri, a state that does not recognize same-sex partnerships, he said.

"He had faith in the system and told me not to worry about it," Glossip said from his home in suburban St. Louis.

But now Glossip, who works only part time in a billing office because of back problems and who supports his 17-year-old son, is worried and angry.

The state would have given a pension to the wife of any officer killed on the job but has no such provision for domestic partners, Glossip said.

(SNIP)
Many older LGBTs' financial woes can be traced to the fact that discrimination was legal during their working lives, which often meant thinner paychecks, limited access to health care, fewer chances to build pensions and smaller Social Security payments, the report said.

Full article: http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/wayoflife/03/17/gays.aging.problems/index.html?hpt=Sbin

[Tailormyst]

1. It's never just a pony. n/t

[racaulk]

2. Yet another reason why marriage equality is so important.

It's not "just a word."

K&R

[awoke_in_2003]

3. You are correct...

hopefully we will crawl out of the dark ages one day. K&R

[foxfeet]

4. Kick.

[Union Yes]

5. K&R LGBT rights are human rights. Second class treatment takes away humanity. nt

[racaulk]

6. Kick