Not like this hasn’t been happening in the military for years.
Yep! My dad was in the Coast Guard during the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell era and one thing he mentioned was gay and lesbian service members marrying each other both for mutual bearding, and because married people got better housing.
Additionally my grandmother married one of her guy friends because her job offered dental insurance to employees and spouses and he needed some dental work done. They got married, processed the paperwork, got his dental problems fixed, made sure all the insurance payments went through, and divorced.
Two people getting married for the benefits has been going on as long as we’ve had benefits to marriage, and if two women doing it is homophobic then I guess someone’s going to have to tell my grandmother she was heterophobic.
like the thing that’s an actual problem is that these benefits are dependent on marriage. that people need, as in the example above, healthcare and may not be able to afford it without insurance shared by a spouse (let alone the other rights only extended to those with a legal partnership)
Reminder: disabled people have the opposite. We can’t marry ANYONE or we risk losing our benefits. It can work out if we are marrying someone who can support two people on one income, but that basically isn’t a thing anymore, so.
This is something that more people should be aware of, if only because (in many states, at least) defense attorneys are actually prohibited from mentioning it to jurors. The law allows a jury to return a “not guilty” verdict contrary to the facts of the case, but not for the defense to inform them of that power or to argue for its application in the current trial.
graduating later than other people means absolutely nothing at all. like you both completed the same requirements and have the same qualifications–why does it matter if you completed it in 5 years and they in 4?? in 6? in 3? you had experiences they didn’t have and they had experiences you didn’t have. relax. take your time if it’s allowable. if that’s what it takes for you to get through your degree and do your best, that’s what you should do. you’re going to succeed. you’re going to be okay.