In the 1950's, when I was a teenager in Flint, Michigan, I fell in love. Bill was tall, dark and handsome. I moved in with he and his mother after my father kicked me out of our house because of my association with Bill. I refused to give up Bill.  The only time we were ever apart was when I served in the U.S. Air Force.  We moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1966 and lived as a couple for 51 years.

My life was turned upside down when Bill died unexpectedly of a heart attack in March 2005.  I encountered obstacles at every turn.  On the day he died I was told that even though I was his domestic partner, I did not have the right to make burial arrangements for him.  I was denied access to Bill's retirement plan, social security benefits and my health benefits ended because of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).   Without access to those benefits, I was forced to move from the home we shared for over 30 years. We tried to do the best we could to protect each other, but it was not expected that Bill would die first.

Ironically, if Bill had been married to five women for ten years each during the 50 years we were together, they would each be entitled to receive his full social security benefits.  Bill and I both paid into the social security system. We shared our lives and loved only each other for our entire lifetime.  It is unfair, and un-American that I should be left this way by my country.