Apr 29, 2005  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO JR.  | COMMENTS     

D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams and members of an ad hoc group of gay lobbyists sought to calm members of Congress over the city’s position on gay marriage recognition after the D.C. attorney general issued an advisory opinion saying same-sex couples married in Massachusetts could file a joint D.C. tax return.

Williams met with Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) on April 20, the same day Brownback told the Washington Post and the Kansas City Star he was troubled over the tax filing opinion by D.C. Attorney General Robert Spagnoletti.

“I have been and continue to be a strong believer and protector of traditional marriage,” the Post quoted Brownback as saying. “This issue has now been moving across the country for several years, and I guess we will deal with something now in D.C.”

Brownback is the newly designated chair of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on the District, which must approve the D.C. budget each year. He has been one of the Senate’s strongest backers of a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage and a longstanding opponent of gay rights legislation.

The Kansas senator’s comments added fuel to a longstanding disagreement among D.C. gay activists over whether the city should push ahead with gay marriage recognition or hold back on the issue to avert possible congressional interference.

At the request of the Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance, Williams has resisted releasing a separate opinion prepared by Spagnoletti last summer stating whether D.C. has legal authority under its current laws to recognize same-sex marriages performed in Massachusetts.

Williams said last week that his meeting with Brownback, which had been scheduled before Spagnoletti’s tax filing opinion surfaced in the news media, was cordial and productive. But he also told the Post that the marriage recognition issue is highly controversial and could jeopardize the city’s budget agenda and existing domestic partner legislation if the city mishandles the issue.

Paul Straus, D.C.’s “shadow” senator, who lobbies Congress on behalf of the District, and members of an ad hoc group of gay rights lobbyists that advocates against congressional interference in D.C. on gay issues, said they were optimistic this week that Brownback would wait for D.C. to clarify its position on marriage recognition before taking any action against the city.

Spagnoletti issued his tax filing opinion on April 14 to a D.C. gay male couple that married in Massachusetts last June. The two men, Edward G. Horvath, 54, and Richard G. Neidich, 64, contacted Spagnoletti for guidance over whether D.C. law permitted them to file a joint D.C. income tax return.

Spagnoletti transmitted his advisory opinion to the couple through an e-mail sent by a member of his staff. The opinion states, “Same-sex married spouses may file a joint D.C. Form 40 if they hold a good-faith belief that they are a validly married couple under the laws of Massachusetts.”

However, the opinion also states that the D.C. Office of Tax & Revenue reserves the authority to review joint returns filed by same-sex married couples to determine whether they should be accepted or rejected.

Horvath said this week that he and his partner have yet to file a joint return but plan to do so shortly. He said the couple each filed forms seeking an extension of the April 15 tax-filing deadline.

Williams said he would consult with Spagnoletti and Natwar M. Gandhi, the city’s chief financial officer, over whether a policy of joint tax returns by married same-sex couples is consistent with D.C. tax law.

The mayor said at his weekly news briefing on April 27 that he is still deliberating over the issue but expects to reach a decision soon.

Members of the D.C. Appropriations Working Group, an ad hoc group of officials with local and national gay rights and AIDS organizations, said they met during the past week with aides to members of Congress to discuss the fallout from the joint tax filing opinion.

The group has worked for nearly 10 years to lobby Congress against enacting anti-gay amendments to the D.C. appropriations bill, said Carl Schmid, a gay Republican activist and lobbyist who helped found the group. Its members include representatives from the Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance, the Whitman-Walker Clinic, the Human Rights Campaign and Log Cabin Republicans.

Issue ‘overblown’
Schmid said he met Monday with members of Brownback’s staff, and came away from ...