D.C.'s gay married couples in uncharted territory
By: Maria Schmitt and Michael Neibauer
Washington Examiner
July 8, 2009
The District officially has begun recognizing gay marriages performed in other jurisdictions, but same-sex couples, city officials and private companies are struggling to grasp all the changes that will bring.
Stephen Gorman and his husband, Dr. Richard Cytowic, married in Palm Springs, Calif., last July 29. On Tuesday, their union was legally recognized in Washington — the city each has called home for more than 20 years. A couple since 1996, who live in Northwest’s Crestwood neighborhood, the pair had been registered in the District as domestic partners.
Gorman described a sense of “serenity” he felt from living in a city that recognized his status. But he said he did not know what, specifically, his new rights and responsibilities are.
A recent encounter with a window company demonstrated there is much to learn concerning private companies’ policies and married same-sex couples. “There was a question over property rights, and the company wanted to talk to the owners,” Gorman said. “I said, ‘Well, we are the owners,’ and there was a very long pause.”
Gorman said he explained to the company, based outside D.C., that he and Cytowic would be married by the time the work took place.
“They are going to have to adjust to that reality,” he said.
The new law follows a brief battle between gay rights activists and their opponents, who unsuccessfully sought a referendum on the statute.
There are 1,298 registered domestic partnerships in the city, according to the Department of Health, and thousands more gay residents. Several hundred new rights and responsibilities — financial, legal and social — are now available to those couples who have wedded in one of the handful of states where gay marriage is legal.
A spokeswoman for the D.C. tax office said same-sex married couples will file their city income taxes as any married couple would — jointly or separately on the same return.
The changes will have no effect on D.C. government coffers in terms of new revenues or expenses, according to a fiscal impact statement that accompanied the recognition bill. It may have a small effect on the bottom line of some companies, business leaders say, as they add new spouses to their health care rolls.
The District does not perform same-sex marriages.
