Ken Cuccinelli (Credit: AP/Steve Helber)
Virginia is going to make filing taxes an even bigger pain for married gay couples in the state by requiring them to file state taxes as single individuals, even if they are jointly filing their federal tax returns. The Virginia Department of Taxation made the decision to continue its discrimination against gay couples in close consultation with Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, who is awful on most things but has made himself particularly infamous for how awful he is on LGBT rights.

The move is just the latest in the state’s “ongoing hostility toward lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Virginians, including legally married same-sex couples,” the Virginia American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement on the decision.

Marriage equality groups have requested Gov.-elect Terry McAuliffe to follow in the footsteps of other governors like Missouri’s Jay Nixon and, once in office, issue an executive order allowing couples who were married in other states to file joint state taxes. But, as the Washington Post notes, Virginia has a constitutional ban on marriage equality that bars governments from assigning “rights, benefits, obligations, qualities, or effects of marriage” to same-sex unions.

It’s a challenge advocates are well aware of, but hope to work around. “I think we’ll certainly have conversations with Gov. McAuliffe’s office to change this for gay couples. But it is very difficult to get around these constitutional amendments,” said Brian Moulton, legal director for Human Rights Campaign.