Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) ruled that same-sex couples, legally married in jurisdictions that recognize their marriages, will be treated as married for federal tax purposes. The ruling applies regardless of whether the couple lives in a jurisdiction that recognizes same-sex marriage or a jurisdiction that does not recognize same-sex marriage.

Executive Director Betsy Smith has been leading EqualityMaine for fourteen years. After securing many incredible wins for LGBT Mainers, she has announced that she will soon step down from her position. Before Betsy officially leaves the Federation family (though we'll always count her as one of our own), we wanted to learn everything we could from her work and experience. So we caught up with her to talk about her successful tenure at EqualityMaine.

Every day, the momentum for full marriage equality across this country builds. And our members are right in the thick of this critical work, achieving some major victories. Just look at what’s been happening these past ten months.

For years, our members have requested assistance and guidance in the area of communications. And although we have always been able to connect state groups with resources and provide some useful advice, we simply weren’t equipped to offer comprehensive communications support.

Our final FEDtalk given at the Summer Meeting 2013 is from John Smallwood, Advocacy & Organizing Director at Fair Wisconsin.

Our ninth FEDtalk given at the Summer Meeting 2013 is from Shannon McCann, Intern at Equality Utah.