Survivors of same-sex marriages and some long-term relationships where the couples couldn’t marry will now be able to share in the same Social Security benefits as everyone else in the country thanks to a new decision by the Biden administration.
Chris Johnson of the Los Angeles Blade reported that “a pair of surviving partners who were in long-term same-sex relationships — but unable to receive Social Security benefits because of now-overturned state marriage bans — are declaring victory in litigation seeking that compensation in the aftermath of the U.S. government withdrawing appeals of trial court decisions in their favor.”
According to Johnson, “the Biden administration dismissed on Monday, Nov. 1, appeals before the U.S. 9th Circuit of Court of Appeals in two separate cases filed by the LGBTQ group Lambda Legal, which argued in the nationwide class-action suits that access to benefits for these survivors is consistent with the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling for marriage equality nationwide in 2015.”
