Second Topic: Homophobia

[judecorp]

tell me about your most recent interaction with homophobia and how you dealt with it.

and then give yourself a hug, because i wish i could. i think you are amazing.

Awwh, I love you too! Big big love!!

We don't see a lot of homophobia around these parts. I mean in my day-to-day. We live in a pretty queer area, attend a queer-friendly church, and reside in the only state in the US that has marriage equality. So we don't really have to worry much, here, about hospital visiting and all of that. Which is nice. And usually people don't yell things like, "No gay marriage for f*cking gays!" like when we lived in Columbus.

But I guess the most recent thing was filing our taxes. Our taxes are such a HUGE pain in the butt because we are legally married in Massachusetts, yet the Federal Government does not recognize our marriage because of the Federal DOMA (thank you, Mr. Clinton). So we have to file a joint return to the state, and individual returns for the Feds. This means:

1. We can't file everything online because the online programs assume you have the same info for Feds and State, and we don't. So we do paper returns or we choose one to file online.

2. We have to do twice the work because first we do the separate returns, and then we have to RE-do it like we were filing jointly so we can import the data into the state return.

3. When it comes to the Fed return, we have to decide who claims the house interest deduction, who claims the baby, etc. And then run the risk of audit if they think it's weird that different women claim the kid in different years.

And honestly? It's unconstitutional and wrong that the Feds can do this, or that we have to have Jen adopt her own child even though she is already on the birth certificate because other states can do this, too. The Constitution has a Fair Faith and Credit clause that guarantees that if something is legal in one state, the other states have to go along with it. You know, except if your talking about marriage between a couple of dirty queers.

How do I deal with the tax thing? I get really annoyed. Really really annoyed.

Every year I say I'm going to include a letter with my taxes that states that I should be filing a joint return and paying more taxes but because the Feds refuse to recognize my legal marriage, they are losing out on some extra Big Gay Taxes. But... I never do. Because when push comes to shove I just want to get my returns in and get my money.

Comments

[mayna.livejournal.com]

we had to file with paper too. Bill even had to buy a big envelope because we had too many danged pages. I get kind of annoyed being "spouse" instead of "taxpayer". Their tax forms are antiquated, seriously!

Not that that even compares to your thing but, well, I wanted to comment something besides "they suck, down with government and the IRS!"

[eight.livejournal.com]

I think it's completely asinine - one day at Lasell I was ranting about this in the Student Affairs office and some ignorant woman said, "But you're not required to file jointly in Mass if you're married - so all gay people can just file separately for everything" - as if that's even remotely a solution.

And you might know more about the full faith and credit clause as applicable to equal marriage, but the way it occurs to me is that every state has to recognize the records of other states - so if you moved to RI and they refused to recognize your marriage, it would be a potential full faith and credit clause violation, but the clause doesn't provide that the federal government has to reciprocate the laws of every state. It should, but I can't think of a constitutional basis for that.

Basically, I think you should write that letter ... and start a letter writing campaign in Massachusetts or something. Get those Feds riled up that they're not capitalizing on the ability to tax married couples. I'll help : )

[gabriellag.livejournal.com]

It doesn't have to be a letter - just a strip of paper that says exactly what you wrote - maybe it will get some neocon thinking.

[cfred.livejournal.com]

The problem is, I think they have at least a rule against being snarky on your tax return. (If you did an outright frivolous tax filing, that would be criminal, by contrast.)

Either that, or they just put it in the "audit this return" bin.

[saldemonium.livejournal.com]

Wait, what? Jen's name is already on the BC, and she /still/ has to adopt Gus? That's insane. I thought she had to adopt to get her name on the BC. *shakes head* That just pisses me off so much. It's asinine.

[khaosworks.livejournal.com]

DOMA is unconstitutional, but not necessarily because it violates full faith and credit, or even if it violates equal protection. The real question is whether Congress even has the ability to legislate marriage. Federal legislation is passed under the auspices of the commerce clause, and I'm not sure there's any way to convincingly twist Article 1 Section 8 to say that marriage is part of interstate commerce. Hence, Congress has no authority to even pass DOMA in the first place. The problem is that this hasn't been tested in the courts.

Then again, the Supreme Court once allowed an argument to use Section 8 to to justify Jim Crow, so maybe I shouldn't speak too soon.

[vttwinmama.livejournal.com]

not looking forward to filing our taxes this year, as we will have to file joint in CA and VT, and individual for federal. also, we had twins and a cross country move. so much bs to consider. we are headed straight to H&R block, for sure!! no easy peasy online filing for us this year, which we usually always do and LOVE it!

[artemis44.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm, when I read the instructions for the Mass tax forms last year, I saw they had updated their policies and now have a mention that you don't have to recalculate, you're allowed to just add certain numbers together to get the applicable number for the Mass return. So possibly #2 on your list can no longer be a problem! :)

Also, GLAD had a page that had a suggested statement for sending in with your taxes as a form of protest. I personally don't do it because I'm never 100% sure about my calculations, and am terrified of provoking an angry IRS agent, but in theory, it should be fine to do.