Life Planning

In an uneven and changing legal landscape, LGBT people and those living with HIV shouldn’t be without certain critical legal protections.

Take the Power, Lambda Legal’s life and financial toolkit, includes inserts on:

• Tools for Preparing Wills and Trusts
• Tools for Protecting Your Health Care Wishes
• Tools for Protecting Your Assets in Life
• Tools for Protecting Your Assets After You’re Gone
• Tools for Protecting Yourself in Your Relationship
• Tools for Protecting Your Children
• Tools for Protecting Your Wishes for Your Funeral
• Leaving a Legacy for Equality
• Tools for Selecting an Attorney
• Are You Prepared? A Life Planning Checklist

Como alguna vez dijera el famoso escritor americano, Benjamín Franklin: En este mundo nada es seguro, excepto la muerte y los impuestos. Pero para las personas lesbianas, gays, bisexuales, transgénero (LGBT) y con VIH, existe otra certeza: uno necesita tomar medidas adicionales en la planificación legal y financiera para protegerse a sí mismo y a sus seres queridos de los efectos potencialmente devastadores de un sistema injusto.

Lambda Legal ha preparado esta guía para ayudarte a tomar el control, de manera que puedas crear un futuro más seguro para ti y tu familia.

Disponible en el internet

Librete

• La vida: Instrucciones de montaje, Prepara tu plan maestro, Elige tus herramientas claves, Construye tu casa

Partes movibles individuales

• Herramientas para preparar un testamento
• Herramientas para proteger tus deseos respecto a tu atención médica
• Herramientas para proteger tus bienes en vida
• Herramientas para proteger tus bienes cuando ya te hayas ido
• Herramientas para protegerte en una relación
• Herramientas para proteger a tus hijos
• Herramientas para proteger tus deseos respecto a tu funeral
• Dejar un legado para la igualdad
• Herramientas para elegir un abogado
• ¡Prepárate!

In a victory for registered domestic partners in California, the state supreme court has rejected a challenge that would have forced surviving partners to pay increased property taxes when one partner dies and the other inherits the couple's home. The court's decision is final, and no further appeals are possible.

While we are pleased with the court's decision, this case represents another instance of domestic partnerships falling short of marriage. There is no ready-made safety net for LGBT people when it comes to many big life issues. Read about life planning options to find out what you can do to protect yourself and your loved ones.

Case History:

The case began in March 2005 when Sutter and Orange Counties challenged the Board of Equalization rule that protects domestic partners from increased property taxes when one partner dies and the other inherits the couple's home. California law has long provided this protection for surviving heterosexual spouses. Represented by NCLR, Lambda Legal and the law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, Equality California and three same-sex couples intervened in the litigation to defend the rule. Orange County later left the litigation, but Tehama and Madera Counties joined it. In 2006, Sacramento Superior Court Judge Jack Sapunor rejected the challenge and upheld the rule, and the assessors appealed. Last October, the Third District of the California Court of Appeal unanimously upheld Judge Sapunor's ruling. In this latest ruling, the California Supreme Court denied further review, permitting the Court of Appeal's decision to stand.

A year ago, Janice Langbehn and her partner of 18 years, Lisa Pond, were departing on a family cruise with their three children when the unthinkable happened: Pond, a healthy 39 year-old, suddenly collapsed and was rushed to Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital where she was diagnosed with a non-survivable aneurysm. Then matters got worse.

When Langbehn and her family arrived, the hospital refused to take information from her regarding Pond's medical history. The hospital also refused Langbehn and their children visitation for nearly eight hours, telling her that she was in an antigay city and state, and could expect no information or acknowledgment as family. Later, Langbehn was denied Pond's death certificate by the State of Florida and the Dade County Medical Examiner, even though it was crucial for their children's life insurance and Social Security benefits.

Lambda Legal has filed a lawsuit against Jackson Memorial Hospital, on behalf of Janice Langbehn and her children. "There is nothing that can make up for what my children and I endured that day," she says. "We only want the hospital to take responsibility for how they treated us and ensure that it doesn't happen to another family."

The case is Langbehn v. Jackson Memorial Hospital.