Am I Better Off Now? – Post two

Last week I posted about whether I was better off now than I was four years ago as a gay man.  You can read that post here.  The answer was an absolute “yes”.  Now I need to really look at my live from a financial standpoint and ask the same question.

Am I better off now financially than I was 4 years ago?

The first area to look at is income.  I am a private practice speech-language pathologist working with disabled children in their homes.  I have recently started a greeting card business, but that is still in the start-up phase, so we’ll take that out of the equation.

My income is approximately the same.  I got divorced in 2010, but I was paying my ex-wife the same alimony and child support as I was in 2008, when we were legally separated.  So although my taxable income is less since my ex-wife and I no longer file jointly, the overall income between the two of us is the same.  My husband’s income from his part-time job is about the same as well.  As a foreign student here from Canada on a student visa, he is only allowed to work 20 hours, which works out well since he is in school full-time.

Tax rates have not changed, thanks to President Obama fighting to keep taxes low until the economy has improved.

My outflow has increased because my daughter has started college, but my child growing up cannot be blamed on any political party.  My husband’s tuition has increased, but that tends to happen regardless of the economy.  So my outflow is more, but not because of any one policy.

Taxes – Here’s where I have an issue.  Before 2011, I filed jointly with my ex-wife.  Now, because of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), a law the  Obama administration has refused to defend because it is unconstitutional (as has been found by numerous federal judges), I am not allowed to file jointly with my lawfully wedded husband.  I understand that, since there is a constitutional amendment in Colorado, my marriage cannot be recognized here, but state taxes impact me far less than federal taxes.  Because we cannot file jointly, I miss out on many deductions afforded straight married couples, including claiming Michael’s tuition and medical expenses (he had a serious surgery in 2011 which has been a huge out of pocket expense).  I cannot even claim him as a dependent.  Basically, even though we have a valid marriage license from the state of New York, we are treated by the government as complete strangers.

The impact on my personal taxes in 2011 was huge.  Can I blame Obama for that?  No.  Who can I blame?  John Boehner and the other GOP leaders who are using large sums of tax payer money to defend a law that is, according to liberal and conservative justices alike, based solely on animus toward the LGBT community.

So I guess overall I am not better off than I was four years ago, but be sure I will never vote for someone who not only does not recognize my rights as an American citizen, but has pledged to the religious right that he will do everything in his power to make sure that those rights are denied by a Constitutional Amendment.  Do we really need a leader who wants to right discrimination into our constitution?  I sure don’t.