Query of Queries in cfcomponent

I've successfully executed a Query of Queries on a cfml page where the code for each cfquery was in the header of that page.  Now I'm trying to move the two queries to a cfc to be accessed remotely.

My cfc has the following code (getOffices is a simplified dummy query for illustrative purposes -- the actual query queries several mySQL tables):

<cffunction name="getOffices" access="remote" output="no" returntype="query">
 <cfquery name="q">
  SELECT  "Brisbane" as city, "QLD" as state
  UNION
  SELECT  "Melbourne" as city, "Vic" as state
  UNION
  SELECT  "Sydney" as city, "NSW" as state
  UNION
  SELECT  "Cairns" as city, "QLD" as state
  UNION
  SELECT  "Geelong" as city, "Vic" as state
  UNION
  SELECT  "Newcastle" as city, "NSW" as state
  </cfquery>
 <cfreturn q>
</cffunction>

 <cffunction name="getStates" access="remote" output="no" returntype="query">
  <cfset theQuery = getOffices()>
  <cfquery dbtype="query" name="q">
   SELECT DISTINCT state 
   FROM #theQuery#
   ORDER BY state
  </cfquery>
  <cfreturn q>
 </cffunction>

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When I try to invoke the getStates method from my cfml page, I get an error message:

Complex object types cannot be converted to simple values. The expression has requested a variable or an intermediate expression result as a simple value. However, the result cannot be converted to a simple value. Simple values are strings, numbers, boolean values, and date/time values. Queries, arrays, and COM objects are examples of complex values.

The most likely cause of the error is that you tried to use a complex value as a simple one. For example, you tried to use a query variable in a cfif tag.

How do I get things to work?