you now would be legally married in the District of Columbia, too.
The thirty-day congressional review (read: veto) period for the marriage recognition bill has passed.
A happy day. The next step is obvious.
Good news: no marriage recognition referendum
Whew! The District of Columbia Board of Election and Ethics (DC BOEE), citing a 2002 amendment to the D.C. Human Rights Act, ruled that there can be no referendum which could repeal D.C. Council-passed legislation recognizing same-sex marriages from other jurisdictions. Imagine that! there can’t be ballot action to remove human rights!
Coverage at DCist and the Washington Blade, which has details on a possible legal challenge.
Oh, happy day. Now, an equal marriage bill is almost certain. I’m very happy. Should I mention I’m credentialed to preform marriages in the District of Columbia?
Rally tonight for equal marriage
Just got back home from an hour-long rally at Dupont Circle, organized under the banner of Join the Impact — I wondered, why not outside the White House — in opposition to the Proposition 8 decision in the California Supreme Court. But the strong subtext was preparing the assembly — I’m guessing there were about a thousand people — for the fight that will surely come to D.C. when a marriage quality bill passes the D.C. Council this year, as it most surely will.
Despite one speaker’s promotion of the Dallas — which I dislike for its secularism — there were two clergy members who spoke. (Links following.) They were well cheered, in part I don’t doubt because they were each clear and charming speakers. A gift worth recalling in this everything-by-social media age.
Hurrah for Vermont; also D.C.
First, let me thank my office mates to visited me or contacted me about the veto overturn in Vermont. It is good news that not only has a state legislature voted for same sex marriage — California did that — but was able to overcome a veto.
So with Iowa, that makes four states where Hubby and I could get married.
And should we choose to do so, we would likely have our marriage recognized at home. A bill to recognize same-sex marriages from other jurisdictions passed the District of Columbia Council unanimously. Unless the Congress steps in and overturns the vote of our democratically-elected representatives, it should become law in about a month.
(D.C. domestic partnership law puts domestic partnership on par with marriage; this is widely seen as an entre to our own marriage law.)
“D.C. Council Votes to Recognize Other States’ Gay Marriages” (Washington Post, 2009 April 7)
I wanted to celebrate that, for fear it would get drowned out in the news from the little-larger Green Mountain State.
Good, good news.
Vermont and Iowa and churches
If you missed it, please review Massmarrier’s latest take on the prospect of a Vermont governor’s veto of the marriage bill state lawmakers passed. In sum? Review the Iowa decision and drop the faith-n-feelings argument.
And a note to the Christian opponents of same-sex marriage: the under-30s are judging you and the faith based on your reckless holy war. You’re rather late to the “defend traditional marriage at any cost” game, and civil marriage is hardly an element of apostolic faith.
In your wake, you’ll see generation of people indifferent to marriage — which has far more to do with the culture than courts or legislatures — who then will be hostile to the Christian church. Ugh, thanks for that.
Yeah, I'm mad about the Warren pick
And I have good reasons. And thoughts about the various responses in the Left.
While I’m consigning them to words, go over to Open Left and follow Matt Stoller’s last few post on the subject. (Disclosure: I know him professionally.)
No, you can't
Nobody had to tell me to go to the White House last night. Like many Washingtonians, around 11:30 pm, I just knew that’s where I needed to be, despite the chill and drizzle. Thousands showed up: a jubilant, if rowdy, group. Lots of chanting and car horn honking. You may have seen the videos or photos.
But I couldn’t be happy. Relieved that President Bush is on his way out and that there would be neither a President McCain or Vice President Palin to replace him. But no real joy. I must have looked a match to the chill and drizzle because I made the mistake of checking on the California Prop 8 outcome before leaving the house.
Now, I have supported President-elect Obama since the primaries. Bill Clinton was terrible on gay legislation — I couldn’t expect any better from his partner in politics — and the Republicans are beyond the pale. But the fact that Obama made a religious virtue of opposing same-sex marriage and promoted a second-class civil union meant that I could not celebrate him like so many others. Need anyone be reminded that his parents’ marriage was illegal in many states at the time of his birth?
So I made this bargain with myself: support him to the election, but be a careful critic on this and any other matter of policy that I think falls below his own values, or the welfare of the nation. (I think his strategy of never speaking constructively of the poor is another failure.)
I can’t do much about California, or the Mormons (save avoiding Utah) or the Knights of Columbus, but I can join in league with other Americans to put pressure on the President and the Congress. So I shall. If you’ll excuse the phrase, he gets no honeymoon from me.
Liberals need to press hard. The real work begins now.
"No on Prop 8" site attacked
Towleroad reports that the “No on Prop 8” Web site received a denial-of-service attack last night. Just the kind of thing you’d expect from the no-holds-barred opponents of same-sex marriage.
Why? Surely because No on Prop 8 is raising money through that site. I donated last night before that attack, but used the Better Democrats portal, directed from the OpenLeft.com site. Try that one. But either way, be sure to donate.
I’d hate to wake to an Obama administration knowing that the best chance so many couples have for legal marriage was extinguished.
Good news from Connecticut
What a happy day!
As many of you have already heard, the Connecticut Supreme Court has ruled that same-sex couples can not be discriminated against in terms of marriage.
And I believe the last round of marriage/domestic partnership District of Columbia laws went into effect today. Or thereabouts.
And so I encourage you to give to the No on 8 campaign in California, as Proposition 8 would ban same-sex marriage there.
Marriage happiness
Obscured by the Knoxville shootings, there is good news from Massachusetts, where the legislature has repealed the 1913 anti-miscegenation law, which rose again vampire-style to prevent out-of-state same-sex couples from marrying in the Bay State. The governor is set to put a stake in to the heart of the law Tuesday, and the law will take immediate effect.
Good news indeed.