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| Richard Neidich (left) and Edward Horvath were
married in Massachusetts last June. They were criticized by some local gay activists
for subjecting D.C. gays to possible retribution by Congress.
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HOME > NEWS > LOCAL
By: LOU CHIBBARO JR. COMMENTS
 
D.C. Attorney General Robert Spagnoletti startled gay activists and raised the
volume in the city’s debate over gay marriage recognition on April 14 when
he said same-sex couples married in Massachusetts could file a joint D.C. tax
return.
But Spagnoletti tempered his statement, which he released through his staff,
by adding that the D.C. Office of Tax & Revenue reserves the authority to
review joint returns filed by same-sex couples to determine whether they should
be accepted or rejected.
The city’s chief financial officer, Natwar M. Gandhi, who is in charge
of the tax office, told the Washington Post he would discuss the matter with
Mayor Anthony Williams and Spagnoletti to determine how the tax office should
respond if a married same-sex couple files a joint return.
Spagnoletti, who is gay, said through a spokesperson that he issued his statement
in response to a request from a gay male couple in D.C. who were married in
Massachusetts last June.
The two men, Edward G., Horvath, 54, and Richard G. Neidich, 64, contacted
Spagnoletti with the help of gay D.C. Councilmember Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) after
trying unsuccessfully to obtain advice on a joint tax return from the Office
of Tax & Revenue, according to Horvath.
“We are not asking D.C. to legalize gay marriage at this time,”
Horvath said. “We are asking the mayor to recognize same-sex couples who
marry in Massachusetts or any other state that legalizes same-sex marriages.”
Vince Morris, the mayor’s press secretary, said Williams would join Spagnoletti
and Gandhi to review the “entire issue” of whether the city has
the authority to recognize same-sex marriages issued by other states.
Horvath’s and Neidich’s request for a joint D.C. tax return and
recognition of their marriage comes one year after Spagnoletti conducted research
and issued a private legal opinion to the mayor on the question of whether D.C.’s
existing laws give the city authority to recognize gay marriages from Massachusetts.
Sources familiar with the mayor’s office speculated that the Spagnoletti
opinion affirms that city law not only allows, but requires the city to recognize
any legally issued marriage from another state, including a same-sex marriage.
Williams initially said he planned to release Spagnoletti’s opinion last
July. He changed his mind after some gay activists argued that D.C. recognition
of gay marriages would likely prompt Congress to intervene by changing the District’s
law to prevent such recognition.
The Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance, which has led efforts to curtail
marriage recognition for the time being, issued a statement this week criticizing
Horvath and Neidich for subjecting D.C. gays to possible retribution by Congress
over the marriage issue.
Rick Rosendall, GLAA’s vice president for political affairs, said in
the April 20 statement that GLAA strongly supports full equal marriage rights
for gays but doesn’t support “pushing for it in D.C. at the present
time due to the political situation.”
Rosendall said Graham’s advocacy last year for the mayor to recognize
gay marriages from Massachusetts was also placing D.C. gays at risk for losing
domestic partnership benefits it already enjoys through possible congressional
intervention.
“What Councilmember Graham was pushing all last year for the District
to do, and what Ed Horvath and Richard Neidich want the D.C. government to do,
is the political equivalent of sailing down the Potomac River on a flaming barge,”
Rosendall said.
Graham defended his stance on the issue.
“There are those, for political reasons, who want to contain this issue,”
Graham said this week. “I understand that as a political strategy. But
in some cases, it’s uncontainable.”
Graham said he could not stop Horvath and Neidich from seeking a legal opinion
on their request to file a joint D.C. tax return. Once Spagnoletti issued his
statement advising the two men they could file a joint return, with the stipulation
that the tax office might not accept it, Graham said, the issue became open
for further discussion.
“Should we have withheld that information from the rest of the community?”
Graham said. “I think not.”
At Spagnoletti’s direction, his chief of staff, Pamela Satterfield, sent
Horvath an e-mail dated April 14, explaining the attorney general’s response
to the gay couple’s question about a joint D.C. tax return.
“Same-sex married spouses may file a joint D.C. Form 40 if they hold
a good-faith ...
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