Joy Behar says gay couples’ legal needs influenced her surprise marriage decision [video]
“Last year, I talked about this gay couple that I know — women. And one of them was very ill. In fact, she passed away. But the other one couldn’t go in as her girlfriend or her wife or anything (because it wasn’t legal in New York yet) and make decisions. She had to say that she was her sister. And that bothered me. It was like, ‘Wow, they could really do that to you.’ This is why gay people want to get married, not just for the romance of it — it’s legal!
”Also, when you’re married… and one person dies, and they leave money to the other person, the other person doesn’t pay any tax on that. If you’re not married and lived together for 29 years, the other person pays a lot of tax. So, that’s another reason gay people want to get married. So, it did have an influence on me, the fact –. It brought to my consciousness why gays needed to get married, and I thought it was a good reason for me to get married. So did Steve. So, we did it.”
Comedian and talk show host Joy Behar discussing her surprise marriage this summer to her partner of 29 years, Steven Janowitz. Her co-host Sherri Shepard also shared video about her marriage in which Elizabeth Hasselback participated. Barbara Walters and Whoopi Goldberg said they were planning on maintaining their statuses as the single women of the show’s panel. (ABC The View)
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