Legal Protection for Same Sex CouplesWritten by Johnette Duff
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The marriage contract from any state comes with built-in advantages and disadvantages. Married couples are bestowed with automatic inheritance rights. They enjoy right to sue for loss of consortium if a third party injures their spouse, denying them services and companionship. Because a married couples has rights, they cannot be denied hospital visitation or right to make medical decisions for each other. Employers often offer medical coverage and benefits to spouses of employees. Why should same-sex couples be denied these benefits? Couples who live together do have flexibility to create their own rights and duties vis-a-vis each other. A same-sex couple can execute wills, written cohabitation agreements, durable powers of attorney for health care (giving a partner right to hospital visitation and right to make medical decisions in event of an emergency) and, with careful financial awareness, create many of advantages of marriage. The question of medical insurance and benefits should be balanced against “marriage penalty tax,” which still exists. The denial of choice to same-sex couples, however, is true discrimination. Same-sex couples should have option of forming a legal relationship under law, no matter what title it is given.
Johnette Duff is the author of The Spousal Equivalent Handbook, The Marriage Handbook and Love After 50. Nationally, she has appeared on Today, Good Morning America, CBS This Morning and in The Wall Street Journal, Self, Smart Money, New Woman and Modern Maturity promoting information on love and the law. Ms. Duff has recently opened a web site titled, love and the law.
| | Congratulations--You're Human!Written by Maya Talisman Frost
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But guess what? It isn't necessarily our brain chemistry that needs attention. It's our lifestyles, our choices, and fact that we are ignoring major issues in our lives. Here's a thought: look at your feelings of disconnection as a welcome warning sign. Feel grateful that you are astute enough to notice! Celebrate fact that you have paid attention. It's easy to ignore, to mask, or to medicate these signs of imbalance. If you choose to acknowledge your feelings, you are WAY ahead of game. Excellent humans use their MINDS. Use yours. Follow your own life philosophy as a road map to excellence. It's your duty--and your privilege--as a thinker.
Maya Talisman Frost is a mind masseuse. As a teacher, facilitator and mediator, she has been helping others engage their formidable frontal lobes since 1983. Her popular course, "Massage Your Mind!: Defining Your Life Philosophy", has inspired thinkers in over 60 countries around the world. Her free weekly e-zine, the Friday Mind Massage, is designed to ease you into a thoughtful weekend. To subscribe, visit http://www.massageyourmind.com today. Thanks for thinking!
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