Studds Will Be In The News For Some Time
In one of the threads, reader “Tina” opined that she “needed” a Foley story!! 
Well I have a “related” one.
I can’t imagine that the Left would choose Gerry Studds as their poster child to challenge federal DOMA’s section governing the definition of marriage for federal purposes, BUT this story below does illustrate the absolutely bizarre ways that legal challenges to DOMA could develop:
The federal government has refused to pay death benefits to the spouse of former congressman Gerry E. Studds (D-Mass.), the first openly gay member of Congress.
Studds married Dean Hara in 2004 after same-sex marriage was legalized in Massachusetts. But Hara will not be eligible to receive any portion of Studds’s estimated $114,337 annual pension because the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act bars the federal government from recognizing Studds’s marriage.
But remember, Studds did have an option to provide for a survivor, and simply did not elect it:
Studds could have purchased an insurable interest annuity, similar to an insurance policy, which is allowed under both the civil service and the federal-employee retirement system and is not affected by the Defense of Marriage Act. Graves said he did not know whether Studds used that option.
Further, as an actuary I can state the “cost” to provide the “insurable interest annuity” is no different had Studds been married to a woman and provided a spousal joint and survivor annuity.
So the reality is that the Federal Government is “refusing to pay” a survivor benefit BECAUSE Studds did not purchase a survivor benefit. The same thing happens to men in traditional marriage!!
The partner of Studds needs to realize that Studds simply did what some men do in a traditional marriage, they do not disclose they are married and/or sign their spouses name waiving the spousal annuity for the sole purpose of getting a larger pension.
It is very hard to feel bad for someone when they simply needed to fill out one form. This is the very point I have made for a long time, it is fairly easy to arrange your affairs that mimic what one might have in marriage.
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