Good News For Michael and Spider... And All Same-Sex Couples

Michael Ely met James Taylor—not the singer—at a Sunset Beach bar in 1971, where Taylor, known as “Spider” to his friends, played guitar in a band. After Ely got involved as a singer, the two men quickly became a couple, living in California until the AIDS epidemic became too great, and they relocated to Tucson, Arizona, where Taylor worked as a jet mechanic for Bombardier and Ely took care of their home.

In 2007, the two had a commitment ceremony but could not be legally married in Arizona until November 2014 when, shortly after the state legalized same-sex marriage, and 43 years after they first met, Michael and James married.

Six months later, Taylor succumbed to cancer.

Michael Ely applied for spousal benefits from the Social Security Administration and was denied because the couple had not been married for the requisite nine months. You know, because they couldn’t legally get married.

Long story short, this week the LGBTQ advocacy group Lambda Legal won a class-action lawsuit, Ely v. Saul, on behalf of same-sex couples denied Social Security Administration benefits because of gay marriage bans, and Michael was able to receive his husband’s social security benefits.

Good news, except that it appears that the government, under the Racist-Homophobe-Transphobe-in-Chief, may seek to overturn the ruling.

All the more reason to vote Blue to keep same-sex couples, who were denied benefits because they hadn’t been married long enough because they couldn’t get married, equal under the law.

NBC News