St Petersburg, FL

Equality Florida Founder Nadine Smith is hoping that the ban on gay marriage will come to an end, because simply put, it’s just costing us too damn much. She states that same-sex coupling can cost quite a pretty penny. For instance, for Edie Windsor, it cost about 36 million pennies, or $363,000. But why?

Edie Windsor lived with her partner, Thea Spyer, for 44 years. In 2007, they were married in Canada. But when Thea died in 2009, Edie had to pay $363,000 in taxes on her spouse’s home. Generally, heterosexual couples inherit property outright. In 2009, the New York Times spent months calculating costs of gay couples throughout their lives, which included taxes, health insurance, pensions, children, etc. For more wealthy couples, the outcome wasn’t pretty. “For wealthy couples with a lot of assets, the cost of being gay could easily spiral into the millions”, reported the New York Times. Simply put, the lack of equal rights causes financial strain, both large and small. With the recent surge of gay marriage supporters in the Senate, we might not have to struggle for too much longer.