Married Filing Jointly: Federal Recognition of Same-Sex Marriages under the Internal Revenue Code
![handle is hein.journals/hastlj47 and id is 1621 raw text is: Notes
Married Filing Jointly: Federal
Recognition of Same-Sex Marriages
Under the Internal Revenue Code
by
CHRISTOPHER J. HAYES*
Introduction
Throughout the long march of history, gay men and lesbians in
virtually every culture have tried to celebrate and protect their rela-
tionships in the same ways that heterosexual couples do.' From the
thirteenth century until the twentieth century, however, Western soci-
eties suppressed expressions of love and commitment among lesbians
and gay men with almost unparalleled virulence.2 No living tradition
of public recognition of committed lesbian and gay relationships sur-
vived in most of the West.3
* J.D. 1996; A.B. Stanford University, 1991. This Note is dedicated to my husband
Scott, whose constant love and support (and occasional prodding) helped make this Note a
reality.
1. A good overview of this history is available in WILLIAM N. ESKRIDGE JR., THE
CASE FOR SAME-SEX MARRIAGE 15-50 (1996). An earlier but generally more detailed
version directed to a legal audience appears in William N. Eskridge Jr., A History of Same-
Sex Marriage, 79 VA. L. REv. 1419 (1993). See also Milton C. Reagan Jr., Reason, Tradi-
tion, and Family Law: A Comment on Social Constructionism, 79 VA. L. REv. 1515 (1993)
(commenting on Professor Eskridge's article).
The most authoritative historian is the late Prof. John Boswell. See JOHN BOSWELL,
SAME-SEX UNIONS IN PREMODERN EUROPE (1994) [hereinafter BOSWELL, SAME-SEX UN-
IONS] (giving an exhaustive treatment through the Middle Ages, when same-sex unions had
a remarkable degree of acceptance even in religious contexts); see also JOHN BOSWELL,
CHRISTANrry, SOCIAL TOLERANCE, AND HOMOsExuALIrrY (Phoenix ed. 1981) [hereinaf-
ter BOSWELL, CHRISTTANry] (a study of attitudes toward homosexuality in Europe from
the beginning of the Christian era through the Middle Ages).
2. BOSWELL, SAME-SEX UNIONS, supra note 1, at 262-79; ESKRIDGE, supra note 1, at
35-37; Eskridge, supra note 1, at 1469-74.
3. BOSWELL, SAME-SEX UNIONS, supra note 1, at 262-64. Interestingly, long after
most Western societies had eradicated any civil recognition of same-sex unions, ancient
religious ceremonies were still performed in the Catholic church. ld. at 263-70.
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Married Filing Jointly: Federal Recognition of Same-Sex Marriages under the Internal Revenue Code
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