Queer Day asks “Will Washington DC be next for gay marriage?”
District of Columbia City Administrator Robert Bobb said Friday that officials are looking into whether the city can legally perform same-sex marriages. Interviewed on American University radio station WAMU, Bobb said that Mayor Anthony Williams has asked the Corporation Counsel to look into the legal and constitutional issues. The city already has a domestic partners law on the books, but Williams came out last week in favor of same-sex marriage. Williams said he is “on record as far back as the 1998 campaign in recognizing that marriage ought to apply to everybody.”
My guess? As much as I’d like to see it happen (the hubby and I will be first in line at city hall), my guess is that it ain’t gonna happen, if only because DC is unlike any other city or state. We have Congress, and with a simple rider or amendment attached to any number of bills, Congress can overrule the District’s law, decisions and votes. So, if it is done in DC – which I think it won’t – it will be immediately undone by the bunch of conservative bigots sitting on Capitol Hill.
No doubt. If Congress won’t let us count ballots for medicinal marijuna, they certainly won’t let us marry off our gay folk.
I wonder what would happen if Eleanor Holmes Norton decided to write legislation telling Tom Delay what Texans could or couldn’t do?
Your post is yet another reminder of why DC citizens need full voting rights!