Equality Florida’s Nadine Smith to same-sex couples: File jointly!
June 4, 2009 at 5:00 am by Lorna Bracewell
By Lorna Bracewell
PoHo contributor
In a recent blog posting, Nadine Smith, Equality Florida’s executive director, issued a formidable challenge to GLBT people everywhere: If you want equality, sacrifice for it. With the bus boycotts and lunch counter sit-ins of the black civil rights movement as her inspiration, Smith asks “What can we (GLBT people) do that demonstrates not only the rhetoric of equality but the personal sacrifice that will awaken the conscience of a nation?”
Smith answers this question with a simple suggestion:
If you’re legally married in one of the three (soon to be four) states that permits same-sex marriage, refuse to deny your spouse on federal forms.
Smith writes, “When the government asks legally married couples in Massachusetts to file as ‘married’ in their state and then mark ’single’ on the Federal Tax form, they are asking that couple to participate in their own discrimination so that the government doesn’t have to dirty its hands.”
According to Smith, this dirtying of the government’s hands is crucial in any civil rights struggle because it lays bare ”the contradiction between what our fellow Americans believe they stand for and what they allow to be done in their name.” She invites us to imagine the “ripple effect of government issued letters to married gay couples ordering them to deny their spouse on federal forms.” “We have to compel these moments,” Smith continues, ”by deciding that our lives will be about honesty and self-respect. Even if it comes at a price.”
While Smith doesn’t delve into the gory details, she does seem sensitive to the reality that that price could be quite high. In a follow-up email, Smith informed me that Equality Florida has reached out to “a law school dean and a well-respected Tax attorney” for guidance regarding the likely consequences for such an action.
Admittedly, it is unlikely that IRS agents will break down the doors of same-sex couples brandishing fire hoses and snarling dogs reminiscent of the black civil rights movement. However, as anyone who has been caught in the byzantine web of federal bureaucracy knows, the lives of couples opting to take this stand will doubtlessly be disrupted in profound ways. The question is will their suffering be vivid enough to in Smith’s words “prick the conscience of our country.” Well, there’s only one way to find out.
