Take a Stand (or Seat) This April: Rock For Equality

Current law denies same-sex couples key Social Security benefits that make up a crucial part of the safety net Americans rely on for their economic well-being in their latter years, or upon becoming disabled. In tough economic times, like those gripping the country today, these benefits are all the more critical.

In April, in Los Angeles and Washington D.C., participants will demonstrate outside local Social Security offices, staging a new kind of civil rights event. In each city they will fill the streets with the first-ever Rally & Rock-In. Some will sit in rocking chairs while thousands more rally behind them.

Presented by the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, in coalition with the AIDS Community Action Fund, the event aims to raise awareness and funds for the fight to change the law. “Sometime the best way to stand up is to sit down” said Craig R. Miller of MZA Events, producer of Rock for Equality.

The national event, to be held in Los Angeles on April 11, 2010 and in Washington, D.C. on April 18, 2010, will graphically and powerfully highlight to the public this often devastating, but under-recognized form of federal discrimination against LGBT people and their families.

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“What better time to stage this event than the Sunday preceding and following tax day?” said L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center Chief Executive Officer Lorri L. Jean. “We see first-hand the devastating results of Social Security discrimination and its impact on the lives of the of the LGBT seniors we serve every day. It’s nothing short of outrageous that, having paid into the system fairly and equally - often throughout decades of hard work - LGBT people are denied the same benefits that all others receive.”

The Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law has determined that, on average, the lack of eligibility for Social Security Survivors Benefits alone has cost the surviving partners of same-sex couples $5,700 per year. With more than one million Americans living in same-sex couples, and an aging generation of Baby Boomers, hundreds of thousands of tax-payers are cheated by this unfair system every day. This discrimination is estimated to have cost the LGBT community more than $2 billion in the last decade alone.

At the Rock for Equality site visitors can register for the events, watch video testimonials about the impact of social security discrimination, and calculate how much they may lose in social security benefits if the law isn’t changed.

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