Jeff Towsley and Mike Bond are a South Burlington couple who have been married for five years and together for 29. They — like many other same-sex couples in Vermont — are celebrating the U.S. Supreme Court’s strike-down of a key provision of the Defense Of Marriage Act (DOMA).
The ruling, which came Wednesday in a 5-4 vote, found that DOMA, which defines marriage under federal law as a union between a man and woman, violates the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution. It means same-sex couples in Vermont, and the 11 other states and Washington, D.C., where same-sex marriage is legal, will now be recognized under federal law, and it clears the way for couples to access a number of federal benefits, including tax breaks and joint retirement benefits.
“I don’t feel like I have given this the proper ‘Oh, my god, I can’t friggin’ believe it’ that it deserves. It’s just been so long coming. In 1984 when Mike and I met each other, you could kick someone out of their job just for being gay. For my employer and the federal government to recognize my marriage, it’s a big thing.”
Jeff Towsley
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Vermont since 2009. Vermont was the first state to legalize it through legislation, rather than in response to a court order. Civil unions have been legal in the state since 2000, a move that was prompted by a court decision. But, up until now, Vermont’s same-sex couples have been considered “legal strangers” under federal law.
DOMA deprived Towsley and Bond of an especially lengthy list of federal benefits because Towsley, a postal worker, is a federal employee.
Towsley rattled off the spousal benefits that he and Bond can now take advantage of — if Bond gets sick, Towsley can take unpaid leave to take care of him, Bond can join Towsley’s health insurance plan, and he can inherit Towsley’s retirements funds tax-free.
Towsley could also, off the top of his head, list the additional taxes they’ve had to pay because DOMA prevented them from filing their federal tax returns as a married couple — $300 this year, $2,500 last year, $1,500 the year before. Even his dental insurance was taxed, a liability that doesn’t affect heterosexual couples.
“The financial impact is huge,” Towsley said, but the implications extend beyond monetary concerns.
“I don’t feel like I have given this the proper ‘Oh, my god, I can’t friggin’ believe it’ that it deserves. It’s just been so long coming. In 1984 when Mike and I met each other, you could kick someone out of their job just for being gay. For my employer and the federal government to recognize my marriage, it’s a big thing.”
Baker v. Vermont
Lois Farnham and Holly Puterbaugh have been in the vanguard of Vermont’s marriage equality movement since they, along with two other couples, sued the state in 1999. That case, Baker v. State of Vermont, led to a Vermont Supreme Court ruling that paved the way, first for civil unions and later for same-sex marriage. Farnham and Puterbaugh were two of the first Vermonters to get a civil union and they later married.
“It’s about time,” Farnham said.
Like Towsley, Farnham had in the front of her mind a list of financial benefits she and Puterbaugh can reap now that they are no longer “legal strangers” under federal law. But she, too, stressed the non-quantifiable implications.
“It’s more than financial. It’s an immeasurable thing,” she said.
Susan Murray, a Vermont attorney, has also been in the thick of the state’s major legal struggles on marriage equality — she was one of three lawyers who represented Farnham and Puterbaugh and the other plaintiffs in Baker v. Vermont.
Murray called decision a “huge victory” for same-sex couples and a “tipping point” for marriage equality. But it still leaves obstacles in its wake — even in states like Vermont, where same-sex marriage is legal.
Edie Windsor, the New York widow who filed the DOMA suit against the federal government when she had to pay $363,000 in estate taxes after her same-sex spouse died, will receive redress from the ruling.
But, according to Murray, it’s unlikely married same-sex couples in Vermont will be able to recoup any of the extra expenses they’ve paid as a result of DOMA. And, in some cases, that financial damage has been irreparable.
Murray recalled one of her clients who was left caring for her infant child alone after her same-sex spouse was killed in a car accident. She was a stay-at-home mother with a mortgage on a recently purchased home, and since she couldn’t collect Social Security survivor benefits, her spouse’s death left her in financial straits, forcing her to sell the house and move in with her parents.
“I like to analogize it to waves on a beach, eroding sand little by little. DOMA has eroded people’s safety nets,” Murray said.
What’s next
Questions remain about what happens to same-sex couples that move out of state.
“The only thing left is portability,” Towsley said.
Towsley can rest assured that if he is outlived by his spouse, Bond can benefit from his retirement account funds. But if the pair wants to relocate to another state when they retire, it’s unclear whether or not their marriage will still be recognized under federal law.
The Supreme Court ruling leaves that murky, according to Murray.
“If you moved to Oklahoma after being legally married in Vermont, the question is whether the federal government recognizes the place where the marriage was celebrated or where the couples reside,” she said.
The decision also makes what Sen. Patrick Leahy called “one of the most difficult decisions” of his nearly four-decade term a moot point.
Last month, Leahy, under political pressure, withdrew a controversial amendment to the immigration bill that would have allowed people to secure green cards for their same-sex spouses. As chair of the Judiciary Committee, Leahy has played a key role in shepherding the immigration bill through the Senate, and he opted to not jeopardize it by offering the amendment in his committee.
Leahy suggested he would bring the amendment up again once the bill reached the Senate floor, but the DOMA ruling has obviated the need for that, and he announced to the Senate today that he would no longer be bringing it up for a vote.
Public opinion
A Castleton poll of 629 Vermonters, conducted between June 3 and June 20 and released Wednesday, shows that 66 percent of Vermonters support same-sex marriage, and 73 percent support federal benefits for married same-sex couples.
The poll results compare these numbers to a national poll from Pew Research Center, which showed 51 percent of Americans support same-sex marriage.
The Castleton poll found that 29 percent of Vermont Republicans support same-sex marriage and 81 percent of Democrats support it.
Some 82 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds in Vermont support it, whereas only 50 percent of people 65 years or older are in favor of it.
