Pride & Opinions

When I was a first year in college, I debated on a topic about Title VII, which is the part of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. On the affirmative (where you had to advocate increasing protection for more people against employment discrimination), we advocated the Employee Non-Discrimination Act, in its 1998 form, which, unfortunately, still hasn’t passed almost a decade later. But during these debates, people would constantly make the argument that GLBT people didn’t need to be protected from employment discrimination because, as a group, GLBT demographics - and gay men specifically - make a lot of money.

It’s obviously an offensive argument, and one that’s died out at least in some part in the last decade, but seeing this article made me think of that slight, and wonder at the positive possibilities of economic identity for GLBT folks as a whole.

In “Ten Money Questions for Chance Mitchell and Justin Nelson,” the first question Nina of Queercents asks is, “Why does the LGBT community need an economic identity?” I really enjoyed what Mitchell and Nelson, co-founders of the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, had to say:

Whether we like it or not, money moves the world. Economics help create social change, not just with corporate leaders, but with local, state and federal governments. The LGBT community is estimated to have had a combined buying power of $660 billion dollars in 2007 and that number will grow to $835 billion dollars by 2010. As a point of reference, these numbers closely follow the buying power of the African American and Hispanic American communities. By leveraging the economic identity of the LGBT community through pocketbook advocacy, we have the ability to create significant change.

Just because Congress doesn’t want to formalize anti-discrimination laws doesn’t mean that poeple can’t do something, which gives me some hope. Mitchell and Nelson had this to say on that subject:

6. How can queer business owners leverage the economics of equality?
When legislators are looking at making decisions, the first people they look to are their constituents. Of their constituents, the first they look to are the business owners – how much revenue are these businesses bringing into the community; how many people are they employing; how many people receive their healthcare through these businesses. The LGBT community has always been very socially active and we have always owned businesses. What we haven’t done it leverage our positions as part of the small business engine that makes the American economy run. Only recently are people realizing that they can and should leverage their businesses to create change. Call your representatives – both state and federal. Make sure that they know what is important to you – not just on issues of importance to your business, but on issues of social concern.

Still not a reason not to pass a law, but a good interim set of steps, I think. The whole article is here.

GLBT, Finance, Employment Non-Discrimination Act, ENDA, National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce

GLBT, Finance, Employment Non-Discrimination Act, ENDA, National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce

Tax time is historically one of my favorite parts of the year - we always pay more money than necessary so that we don’t have any surprises or problems if our income magically goes up, and though I know that’s not the most financially smart way to do it, it means I’m only ever excited to get the refund.

Filing taxes when you’re GLBT is a little more complicated, since the web of laws surrounding GLBT relationships is generally bad and when not bad, complicated, but About.com’s Gay Life blog has some good Tax Tips for Gays, Lesbians, and Same-Sex Couples that you might want to check out before filing that return. Even if you think you know everything there is to know about taxes, it can’t ever hurt to have more information.

GLBT, taxes

GLBT, taxes

One of the features I liked best about Queercents was the end of the year round-up they did for all of their bloggers, which allowed me to read posts I might not have read before throughout the year. Through that method, I found this post about FairTax, which is basically a new tax proposition being advocated by at least a couple of presidential candidates (Huckabee, Gravel).

What is FairTax? Basically, it’s a flat tax, that replaces all current tax codes with a 23% flat tax. The post explains that

It is estimated that the embedded costs of taxes in what we buy today is approximately 22%. Some of the goals of the FairTax act are to eliminate these embedded taxes, as well as the income tax, the estate tax, the gift tax, etc… and replace it with a national sales tax of approximately 23%. Changing the need of the IRS as a governing authority over the 300 million American taxpayers and reducing their authority to the 20 million American businesses. Fewer entities would result in lower Fraud and improved control.

In general, I believe in progressive rather than regressive taxation, since there’s a floor to how many items someone can choose to buy (meaning that the poor, many of whom pay no taxes at all in the status quo, would have to pay more in the world of a flat tax), but I thought that the GLBT implications of this proposal were interesting and deserving of consideration. These potential benefits were as follows:

LGBT Issues:

Filing Jointly - There would be no such thing as filing in FairTax, therefore equalizing this problem in our current tax code.
Taxing Benefits - My partner receives his health benefits from my employer, but unlike my straight married colleagues, I must tax on his benefits. Does this sound fair? FairTax removes this inequality.
Estate/Inheritance Tax - Today, if a same sex couple own assets together and one of the couple dies, the estate has to pay tax on these assets before it can be transferred to the other. Married couples do not have to pay as there is a right of transfer of their jointly owned assets. By removing the estate/inheritance tax, this situation goes away.
Gift Tax - Many same sex couples own a house together. In a situation where one of the members of the household makes the house payment, the IRS can look at the other member as receiving a “gift” of equity and could be forced to pay tax on that gift should they be audited. Married couples do not face this challenge as assets are jointly owned. Gay couples are not legally allowed to pass money between them without resulting in gift tax that they should report to the IRS. Think about retirement age, or is one of them got ill and had large medical bills. FairTax eliminates this unfair taxation.

What do you think? Is FairTax a good idea for people in general and GLBT folks in particular?

GLBT, FairTax, taxes

GLBT, FairTax, taxes

This one’s the all financial edition. See you Monday!

* The Simple Dollar: “The Simply Dollar Weekly Roundup: Caucus Edition” - It might be cheating to post another roundup in my link roundup, but this one was so good I couldn’t resist.
* Planet Out: “Ten Key Tips for LGBT Money” - A good place to start for some basic financial tips for LGBT folks.
* Wisebread: “Impulse Shopping: A Controllable Handicap” - Especially after the holidays, when everything seems to be on sale, just not buying things can often be the hardest step.

GLBT Finance

GLBT Finance

Ideally, you would have started this process on January 1st, but since it’s only the 3rd, I think we can just wrap the extra two days in there some weekend, and catch up. Plus, I think the link is sufficiently good that even starting now would be a good idea. In fact, it’s one of those things I’ve been meaning to write about - and do - since the series came out last year, but never did. Want to do it with me?

The idea is pretty straight forward: Use the Month of January to fix your finances by doing set tasks each day that advance a larger goal. The Simple Dollar has the tasks grouped into different stages, with different sections for each stage. Luckily for us, Stage 1 has 3 tasks, so you can think about them and maybe even be caught up to day 4 by the time it rolls around tomorrow:

Stage 1: Figuring Out Your Goals And Values

Day 1: Your Five Main Values
Day 2: Defining Your Goals From Your Values
Day 3: Create A Plan For Each Goal

The underlying challenge that most people have with their finances is that they see money as distinctly separate from the rest of their life. Money is an antagonist, an enemy that keeps you from doing what you want to be doing. The truth is that money is merely a tool, and when you find yourself feeling as though money is an antagonist, it is no different than a person attempting to learn how to use a heavy sword; it’s unwieldy and dangerous.

The first step for learning how to integrate money into your life and use it successfully as a tool is to figure out what exactly you wish to build with that tool. Without underlying values, goals, and plans, money is no different than swinging a hammer around without building something. Thus, this first stage is crucial: what exactly is most important to you, and what will it take to adequately support those values?

I’ll be checking in each week with updates on my finance progress, so feel free to check in as well. Maybe by the end up January we’ll all be doing a little better.

GLBT, finances, New Year’s resolution

GLBT, finances, New Year’s resolution

Since the end of the year and after the holidays involves a lot of financial reassessment and figuring out where one stands with the money spent to achieve holiday happiness, I thought I’d spend this week talking about different financial topics, especially those that disproportionately affect GLBT communities. So, a word to the wise - don’t spend your rent money on alcohol for New Year’s Eve! (I’ll be drinking sparkling grape juice. Ahhh, pregnancy.)

Though my actual job involves mostly administrative and logistical work for a non-profit organization, I’ve spent the holiday season doing some extra work at a local depatment store (local in the sense that it was founded in the area - it’s now owned by a major chain from the east coast) in customer service, a job I’ve done off and on since college and had the added bonus of getting me a pretty good discount on many of my Christmas presents. As is the case with most retailers, there’s a heavy promotion of the store credit card, and many folks come up to customer service (where I work) to pay their bills and figure out how much money is owed.

Since we don’t have any credit info in the store, people have to use a special credit phone to get their information, and I’ve noticed that since the last time I worked at this particular store, the credit company has been bought by another company, and the phone system is much much much worse than it used to be. Apparently, this is totally normal, and Nina at Queercents has a good post (though a little old) detailing some ways to go about getting an actual human being to talk to when you’re trying to figure out that credit card balance. I know that on our line, pressing the # key a number of times will get you a real person, but that you have to be careful with the timing or it’ll just try to get you to reenter your account information.

But once you get there? I would use 37 Signal’s Tips for Getting Good Customer Service, because as a customer service representative, I can personally attest that they are totally true. Though they’re geared to folks you speak with on the phone, a number of them are true in person as well. My favorite is this one:

Don’t start with a threat. “Do this immediately or else…” or “If you don’t do this I’ll report you to the Better Business Bureau” or “If you don’t do that I’m going to report this to my bank and other authorities” or “If you don’t respond within 4 hours you’ll be hearing from my lawyer…” It’s not uncommon to hear this on the first email from people. I don’t know if folks assume you are out to get them or they’ve been burned before, but starting with a threat never helps your cause. Given the choice to help two people, the customer service person is naturally going to help who appears easiest to help first. Plus, people will do more for others who are kind to them than they will for someone sounding bitter and dismissive right from the start.

I have often felt like there are two options for dealing with holiday and post-holiday shopping: in one option, we can all act as though we’re all in this together, and things take a little longer cause a ton of people are out there, but everyone’s doing the best they can with what they have to work with. Alternatively, we can act like everyone’s out to get us and be like those people who drive on the shoulder of the highway to avoid merging and then inconvenience everyone else by trying to cut in line in front of everyone wh’s been patiently folowing instructions. Obviously, the first option seems preferable to me, since people who work retail have to be at work being yelled at when people take the second option. Choosing to be helpful and kind goes a long way towards making shopping more productive and happy for everyone. I would imagine that this is especially true for a lot of GLBT folks and families, who may have more complicated holiday arrangements and present situations as a result of different family patterns. My husband and I, for example, had three Christmas celebrations, one with his dad and wife on the 23rd, one with my parents on the 24th, and one with his mom and partner on the 25th, though the partner had to leave in the middle to attend a family celebration that others weren’t invited to. Adding that kind of stress to an already stressful holiday season can only make the attempt to be nicer and more helpful positive for everyone.

GLBT, shopping, customer service, retail, holiday shopping

GLBT, shopping, customer service, retail, holiday shopping

I find the concept of GLBT-specific financial planning blogs fascinating, I think for two reasons. First, I find financial blogs and money interesting in the first place, and like reading all about the different factors of money management in general, especially as it relates to legal structures (bankruptcy, mortgages, federal interest rates, etc). Second, the idea that there are monetary questions specific to GLBT families is pretty logical but a notion I hadn’t really contemplated much until recently, as it becomes more and more obvious the benefits I receive from being heterosexual and married.

Today, I was reading an article I found interesting by Melissa at Queercents (I know I mentioned this before, but best tagline ever) that talks about the intersection between the lack of gay marriage options and financial planning questions. I think a lot of the politics of gay marriage is really about how much validation the state gives to married people in the form of tax breaks, benefits, and the ability to structure life choices in a natural-seeming arc that prioritizes certain choices at certain times. As Melissa explains,

In the same way I think the concerns in the original article are even more important for LGBT people than unmarried straight people, I think laying that strong foundation is especially important for young LGBT people. The farther off the beaten path you want to live, the more secure you need to be on your own road. As long as financial systems are working against you, as long as it’s still legal to fire and evict you for your sexuality or gender identity, as long as you need to write up legal documents to secure benefits most people don’t even have to think about, it’s even more important to know how to take care of yourself.

There are two situations that seem to be in confluence here: that making choices that society doesn’t like means that you have to watch out for yourself because no one is going to help you if you fail, and also that not getting the benefits of marriage means that you have to be willing to watch out because you start out behind in the financial game to begin with.

GLBT, finances, gay marriage

GLBT, finances, gay marriage

Since it’s the holidays, consumer spending habits are at the forefront of a lot of folks’ minds, often in ways that might get ignored the rest of the year. Gay Rights Watch has an interesting article that reaffirms my general inclination, which is that one should try to support stores that do good work politically, recognizing that it’s not always possible and that the situation is often incredibly complicated. I’ve detailed my concerns with Target on my personal blog, but there are a lot of different factors that can go into deciding which businesses you want to support.

As a starting point, Gay Rights Watch suggests “Googling ‘your city’ and ‘gay and lesbian yellow pages’” to see if you can actively support those businesses who do well, rather than always figuring out which businesses should be avoided. According to the comments in that post, this can also save you money, as those yellow pages often contain coupons. A good place for researching larger corporations is the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, which details workplace policies and politics of the Fortune top 1000 businesses, as well as many others. If you’re looking for a specific company, you can always search their employer database. Additionally, their Buying for Equality 2008 Guide details which businesses one might want to support on a sliding scale. It also offers “a few ways you can help fight for equality every day,” which include:

1. Share this information with your friends, family and co-workers. Help them to become supporters of equality by using the information in this guide.
2. Advocate for equality in the workplace. If your company isn’t on this list or you think they can do better, go to www.hrc.org/cei to find out how to get them engaged.
3. Get active about equality. Sign up for newsletters and Action Alerts at www.hrc.org/actioncenter.

Can’t everyone use a few small steps for equality?

Image via Lifehacker, link via Gay Rights Watch.

holiday shopping, GLBT, GLBT Friendly businesses, HRC, Corporate Equality Index

holiday shopping, GLBT, GLBT Friendly businesses, HRC, Corporate Equality Index