In July, Kathy Murphy received a letter from the Social Security Administration. “We are writing to tell you that you do not qualify for widow’s benefits,” it said. “You do not qualify for the lump-sum death benefit because you are not Sara Elizabeth Barker’s widow or child.”
Well. Not only had Ms. Murphy shared a modest ranch house in Austin, Tex., with Sara Barker for nearly 30 years, not only had she cared for Ms. Barker through two terrible final years of illness, but the two were indeed legally married.
“We always hoped we’d be married in the state where we made a home,” Ms. Murphy, a native Texan, told me. “But Sara was diagnosed with cancer in 2010 and we didn’t have the luxury of time any more.” So they flew to Boston, where they had met and first lived together, and were wed in a quiet, teary ceremony in a Unitarian Universalist chapel.
Had they remained in Massachusetts, things would be different. But the couple went home to Austin, where Ms. Barker died in early 2012. Social Security won’t approve spousal or survivors benefits for same-sex spouses in Texas and the 16 other states (at the moment) that still don’t recognize their marriages.
“It’s like getting kicked when you’re down,” said Ms. Murphy, 62. “Somebody applying for survivors benefits has already suffered loss. The last thing you want is someone to tell you your marriage isn’t legal and you’re not worthy.”
So she and the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare are suing the Social Security Administration, arguing that denying benefits to married same-sex couples represents unconstitutional discrimination.