Federal Court Orders Social Security Administration to Pay Attorney’s Fees to Gay Widower Who Prevailed on Benefits Claim

On July 4, 1990, John Roberts and Bernard Wilkerson, a same-sex couple living in Pennsylvania, “expressed to one another their intent to establish a common law marriage.” Although at the time Pennsylvania did not recognize same-sex marriages, either under its common law or its statutory law, the men considered themselves married and lived together as a couple until Wilkerson died in 2015.  Moving quickly after a federal court struck down Pennsylvania’s ban on same-sex marriage … <Read More>