Where Everybody Knows You're Numb

Date: Tue Mar 10 1:30 PM, 2009

RE: NO tax is "gay" but this is obscene ...

Date: Tue Mar 10 1:27 PM, 2009

Nightowlhoot3 wrote:

Civil Union or no, until same sex couples have FULL RIGHTS extended to them that heterosexual couples do, inequality flourishes...

Thursday, March 5, 2009 04:20 PST
Annie Leibovitz and the gay tax
Poets swoon about it and singers croon about it, but LGBT people can calculate the cost of love down to the last penny. In my household it comes to around $329.25 monthly: that's the gay tax my wife and I shell out for me to be on her health insurance plan, because her company must treat that benefit as additional taxable income. It doesn't matter that our Massachusetts marriage is recognized in New York. Companies pay for their employees' health insurance with pre-tax money through a federal program, and same-sex marriage isn't federally recognized.
"When Sontag died in 2004, she bequeathed several properties to Leibovitz, who was forced to pony up half of their value to keep them."
But that's chump change compared to what love is currently costing celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz. Back in late February the NYT noted that Leibovitz had borrowed a total of $15.5 million from a company called Art Capital Group using "as collateral, among other items town houses she owns in Greenwich Village, a country house, and something else: the rights to all of her photographs."
But what the NYT missed, along with every other straight newspaper that picked up the story, is why Leibovitz suddenly found herself in such dire financial straits. It took AfterEllen's Julie Miranda to put two and two together and figure out that "most of Leibovitz' financial woes stemmed from her inheritance of her longtime partner, Susan Sontag's estate." Writes Miranda (who, in turn, is channeling Suze Orman's Valentine's Wish for Gay Marriage):

Rest of article here: Annie Leibovitz and the gay tax - Broadsheet - Salon.com

I'm looking forward to the articles. However, for now I can say that it's disgusting that anyone, anywhere should be faced with the loss of their longtime companion, cash, property assets, and their lifes artwork. To me, as the most gifted portrait photographer ever, Annie Leibovitz does not deserve the loss of her dignity atop the other life, love and material losses she's already weathered. Nobody does. However, in this case, many careers were rejuvenated, created and immortalized, saved by this womans art. Seems those faces could show up to save right this warped mess. It's not a situation, it's her life.

Nightowlhoot3 · Guru

Civil Union or no, until same sex couples have FULL RIGHTS extended to them that heterosexual couples do, inequality flourishes...

Thursday, March 5, 2009 04:20 PST

Annie Leibovitz and the gay tax

Poets swoon about it and singers croon about it, but LGBT people can calculate the cost of love down to the last penny. In my household it comes to around $329.25 monthly: that's the gay tax my wife and I shell out for me to be on her health insurance plan, because her company must treat that benefit as additional taxable income. It doesn't matter that our Massachusetts marriage is recognized in New York. Companies pay for their employees' health insurance with pre-tax money through a federal program, and same-sex marriage isn't federally recognized.

"When Sontag died in 2004, she bequeathed several properties to Leibovitz, who was forced to pony up half of their value to keep them."

But that's chump change compared to what love is currently costing celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz. Back in late February the NYT noted that Leibovitz had borrowed a total of $15.5 million from a company called Art Capital Group using "as collateral, among other items town houses she owns in Greenwich Village, a country house, and something else: the rights to all of her photographs."

But what the NYT missed, along with every other straight newspaper that picked up the story, is why Leibovitz suddenly found herself in such dire financial straits. It took AfterEllen's Julie Miranda to put two and two together and figure out that "most of Leibovitz' financial woes stemmed from her inheritance of her longtime partner, Susan Sontag's estate." Writes Miranda (who, in turn, is channeling Suze Orman's Valentine's Wish for Gay Marriage):

Rest of article here: Annie Leibovitz and the gay tax - Broadsheet - Salon.com