East Side Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney led a press conference outside the offices of the Internal Revenue Service on April 14 to take note of the first Tax Day in which married same-sex couples in the US are required to file that way on their federal tax returns. Until Edie Windsor won her landmark victory against the Defense of Marriage Act last June, same-sex couples legally married in states or foreign countries that allowed it were barred from identifying themselves in that fashion with any federal agency.
Maloney –– pictured with Eunic Ortiz, president of the Stonewall Democrats of New York City, Randy Jones (in the cowboy hat), a member of the iconic Village People who with his husband filed for the first time as a married couple after 30 years together, East Side State Assemblyman Dan Quart, and Allen Roskoff, president of the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club –– called federal recognition of same-sex marriages “historic and very important.” She cited a study by the Human Rights Campaign and the Center for American Progress that noted 179 places in the federal tax code where marital status is mentioned and estimated that the average same-sex couple would save roughly $2,900 on their tax bill from being able to file as married.
