COMMENTARY | A major step in the effort to legalize same-sex marriage was taken on Friday, January 20, when a coalition of 80 mayors announced their support for legalizing marriage between gays.
Mike Bloomberg, mayor of New York City and head of Mayors for Freedom to Marry said ,”Mayors understand that welcoming committed gay couples to the rights and responsibilities of marriage isn’t just the right thing to do.” Mayors of Chicago, Houston and Los Angeles are each supportive of such measures.
This announcement comes one day after New Jersey Governor Chris Christie softened his opposition to same-sex marriage and that is a good thing. His most recent statement is that he will make a “deliberate and thoughtful” decision if the New Jersey legislature passes a bill. Previously, in 2009, he vowed to return to the legislature any bill legalizing same-sex marriage “with a big red veto across it.”
Governor Christie and other politicians may have been influenced by a recent poll conducted by Quinnipiac University which showed that a majority of New Jersey voters favor legalizing marriage between same-sex partners. This is the first time that more than 50 percent of the respondents favored same-sex marriage. The key word here is “marriage”, because New Jersey has recognized domestic partnerships or civil unions since 2006.
If, and when the bill is passed and signed into law, New Jersey would then become the seventh state where same-sex couples can get married. There are also 10 states which recognize civil unions or domestic partnerships.
This is important because during the Republican debates, many candidates, including front-runner Mitt Romney, have called for a Constitutional amendment defining marriage as being between a man and a woman. You need 39 states to ratify an amendment and the more states which recognize marriage, the less likely that passage would occur.
While it is wonderful that some states recognize same-sex marriage, the real progress will only come when the federal government and the IRS recognize that two people of the same sex can be married.
Unfortunately, much of the discrimination is in the form of financial punishment. Gay couples cannot save on their federal income taxes by filing a joint return. They are not entitled to the unlimited marital deduction which is available to heterosexual couples, and that makes their estate issues more complex and expensive.
Heterosexual couples can contribute to a spousal IRA even if one spouse does not work. Gay couples are denied that right. In a traditional marriage, the surviving spouse is entitled to roll over the retirement assets of their deceased loved one without incurring tax consequences. This process is denied gays.
Granting same-sex couples the same rights and entitlements that heterosexual couples receive should be fundamental and the sign of a maturing society.