Same-sex couples in Iowa will now be able to check “married” when filing both their federal and state income tax returns as a result of today’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
While same-sex couples have been able to marry in Iowa for the past four years, State Senator Matt McCoy says those couples could not file joint state tax returns.
“Prior to today they could not, but now they can,” McCoy says.
A spokesman for Republican Governor Terry Branstad says the governor’s staff will “carefully review” today’s U.S. Supreme Court actions before deciding whether any other state policies need to be changed.
McCoy, a Democrat from Des Moines who is gay, will speak this evening at a rally in Des Moines organized to celebrate both of today’s U.S. Supreme Court rulings.
“This is going to change the landscape of the civil rights movement forever and, obviously, this is going to afford many Americans — millions of Americans — the opportunity to love who they want to love and be recognized for more than 1100 federal benefits that, you know, traditional marriage affords couples,” McCoy says.
McCoy posted a link to the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion on his Twitter account this morning and tweeted that the ruling on the federal Defense of Marriage Act was “a watershed moment in American civil liberties history.”