2592 West 14th Street
Cleveland, OH 44113
800-653-0799
216-861-0779
office@ucccoalition.org

• Back to marriage equality

Basics
What is The Coalition?
What do we do? (Vision/Mission)
Who are the staff and Council?
Open and Affirming (ONA)
Youth and Young Adults (YYA)
Resources and materials

Happenings
Newsletters and other news
Events (ours and others')

Participation
How to get involved (PDF)
How to donate

Connections
Find an ONA church/setting
Additional contacts/directory
Network with other members
Web links

Marriage Equality:

• Marriage study packet
• How can I help?
• List of benefits of legal marriage
• Marriage equality links

Programs of The Coalition

• Discussion boards
• Local chapters
• Marriage equality work
• National Gathering
• Open and Affirming
• Community organizing
• Youth and Young Adults

Donate NOW!

In addition to the love and commitment associated with marriage, it is also an enormous legal institution, touching nearly every area of life and death. For most people most of the time, marriage is advantageous legally, conferring hundreds of state protections and over 1000 at the federal level.

Marriage also brings some burdens, and yours may be a situation in which marriage's legal consequences are disadvantageous for you or your family. Getting married may disqualify you from certain government benefit programs, or may raise your profile or your sexual orientation to governmental authorities.

Even beyond the responsibilities associated with marriage, a same-sex couple will meet with a mixture of respect and disrespect from private institutions and government agencies and institutions. Given the discriminatory laws in place in many states and in the federal government, some protections will be denied to you and your family. One federal law says that all federal programs and laws will only treat marriages of a man and a woman as marriages. This means that same-sex married couples will be denied approximately 1138 rights and protections that are attached to marriage under federal law.

Link to the original Government Accountabilty Office PDF of these benefits as listed on the ACLU website here: http://www.aclu.org/getequal/ffm/Section78/8A1GAO.pdf

For information about how being married in Massachuetts may affect you, please visit:
http://www.glad.org/marriage/tips+traps.html

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