In California, registered domestic partners have now been granted greater equal rights including the responsibility to file joint state tax returns. However, since the federal government still offers no legal recognition of gay and lesbian families (including my own family that includes my longtime partner and our 4-year old daughter), completing this joint state return has put many California families in a tax quandry.

Nonetheless, we're doing everything we can to comply with the new state law. As I can't wait to get my hands on our expected tax rebate, I dutifully completed our tax returns as TurboTax recommends: - complete and file the individual federal returns and then create a faux married federal return for the sole purpose of completing the state tax return.

After spending hours in completing a "married" federal return that I had no intention of filing, I was shocked to learn that my family was being severely penalized by the federal tax code. You see, if we were allowed to file a federal return as a legally married couple, we would be paying $7,000 LESS in federal taxes. That's right - we're being penalized $7,000 by the federal government even though the state of California has affirmed our family status as registered domestic partners.

I always assumed that LGBT American families were paying more in taxes than legally married people but I had no idea that the penalties were so great. Clearly, LGBT families are being punished by the federal tax code. All Americans who believe in tax fairness ought to be aware of this violation of the 14th amendment and join with the Democratic Party in fighting for equal rights for all Americans.