A Doubly Trying Tax Season for Same-Sex Couples

From the New York Times:

For Colette Hayward and Margaret Selby, the problem is this: Maryland recognizes their 2009 marriage, but the federal government does not.

[...]

Ms. Hayward, 47, and Ms. Selby, 48, have two children and three grandchildren. They were together for 18 years before they married in Massachusetts. Soon after their marriage in 2009, Ms. Selby filed a request with the Baltimore County Police Department to add Ms. Hayward to her health care coverage and to make sure she was eligible for other benefits available to officer’s spouses. She was turned down.

Lambda Legal, the gay, bisexual and transgender advocacy organization, filed an administrative grievance, arguing that denying benefits to a married couple, gay or straight, was contrary to Maryland law. It cited a 2010 opinion by the Maryland attorney general, Douglas F. Gansler, which noted the state’s longstanding law recognizing out-of-state marriages, including same-sex ones.

Read the full article here.