ProudParenting.com - Social Security Administration ignores Florida gay father. His child suffers because of anti-gay discrimination - Comments

Luck of the Draw

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 08:43:07 -0700

This is entirely unfair but the fact is your experience with Social Security is determined in large part by the person that handles your case. If you have issues it is best to go to your local office and speak with a case worker. It gives you a point of contact and the agency's representitive has a real living person to attach to the claim they're processing.

Disability claims can be very tricky. It is imperative that the forms be filled out completely correc and that all needed documents are included. An actual case worker will review your application and tell you what needs to be done before you turn it in. If you mail it in the person processing the claim sees a defect, and rejects it. What else can they do? Then you wind up in the appeals process, a time consuming and frustrating place to be.

Social Security Administration ignores Florida gay father.

Fri, 30 May 2008 20:39:00 -0700

Were I a juror charged to decide if gay discrimination is at the root of the delay, I would not have enough information to reach a conclusion. A two year wait is a long time, but it does not prove discrimination. Many disability claimants wait much longer just to get a hearing.

My advice to the legal counsel is to forget writing to the Congressperson (if you have done so); he or she is no help. Contact the Regional Office in Atlanta. Obtain the number for the Area Director that oversees the SS Office in question. The AD holds the purse for merit increases for District Managers in the local office; thus, ADs are amazingly effective at cutting red tape.

I am not gay, by the way. People should receive good service whoever they are, and two years without a response is a run-around whatever the reason.

Bob Burgess
Cedar Creek, TX

Parents to be

Thu, 29 May 2008 09:11:33 -0700

My partner, of 12 yrs, and I are in the process of adoption and stories likes these have begun to attract my attention when I scan my daily blogs. Thank you for posting this. I look forward to following this story and seeing what the outcome will be.

Thanks. KevinErskine@Hotmail.com

Social Security Administration ignores Florida gay father. His child suffers because of anti-gay discrimination

Jeff — Wed, 28 May 2008 14:11:26 -0700

Gary Day has filed suit against the Social Security Administration. Day is a disabled father, whose repeated requests for assistance for his children has been ignored for over two years. Indications in the government's responses point to anti-gay discrimination.