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Loading ...DC to recognize gay marriages
04.08.2009 9:06am EDT
(Washington) Congressional Republicans are vowing they will do all they can to block the District of Columbia from recognizing same-sex marriages that have been performed in areas where they are legal.
In a preliminary vote, the DC Council unanimously approved the bill. It needs to pass a final time next month and then, like all DC laws, be reviewed by Congress.“It’s high time we send a clear, unequivocal message to those persons of the same sex and married in another jurisdiction that their marriage is valid in D.C.,” The Washington Post quoted openly gay city council member Jim Graham as saying. “I hope this city recognizes this is a human rights struggle.”
DC already has a domestic partner registry that was enacted in 2007 to the ire of Republicans.
The registry allows same and opposite-sex unmarried couples to register their relationships. It includes such partner rights as hospital and nursing home visitations, medical decisions, and inheritance rights.
After the law was passed, then-President George W. Bush threatened to veto a bill in Congress providing federal funding to the District unless a clause was added stating the money could not be used to fund the domestic partner registry.
With Democrats firmly in Control of the White House and Congress there is little that Republicans can do but denounce the DC measure.
And another member of the DC council, David Catania, who also is gay, said it is only a matter of time before the city takes up a bill to legalize same-sex marriage.
“It’s no secret that I have been working on legislation that would take us further,” he told The Post. “This is the march toward human rights and equality. This is not the march toward special rights. This is the equal march and that march is coming here.”
from all the articles I have been reading seems the one thing to finally give gays equal rights is take the Republicans votes away ,they are latched on like a mad dog they need to get a grip and move on to something else oh I don’t maybe help get us out of the financial mess we have been in the last 8 years
Someone really should tell those congressional Republicans quoted in this article that this is 2009, not 1909. It is making them look ridiculous to be standing in the congressional door trying to block civil rights for a minority. Didn’t Alabama and Arkansas try that years ago with schoolhouse doors?
DC John and Bob,
Are you bucking for a job on the 365gay.com site? Everyone else seems to understand the meaning of this piece and the excitement for the progress of the movement. I guarantee, “bad journalism” will not undercut our progress, but friendly fire just might.
Republicans will do all they can to block DC from recognizing same-sex married couples from states and countries where they are legal.
Hmmm! Maybe DC should also not recognize Republicans from states where they have been legally elected.
Then both sides will face equal discrimination.
This article has far too many factual errors to be taken seriously. Craig corrects many of the errors, but frankly, this is an embarrassingly poor piece of journalism.
This is a very poorly written story…first paragraph says Congressional Republicans will block the DC effort but the rest of the story deals with the past actions….shoddy journalism!!
I live near DC. My neighboring county shares some of the cultures and values of DC.
Maryland is a full fledged state in charge of its own affairs, laws and moneys. DC is not so lucky. It is a federal city (not a state) under the fiat of Congress that holds its purse strings. Now with with Bush (who wanted to yank DC around by its purse strings and make DC yield to his will) gone along with many of the worse Congressional homophobes or GOPers gone over the last few years, due to indictment Cunningham, forced out on ethics and/or corruption charges Stevens (replaced by progay Alaskan Begich) DeLay retirement, death or ill-health Helms, Gingrich, Thurmond, Lott, defeat Musgrave, Santorum, Frist, Dornan, etc.
and DC’s vocal on DC affairs representative to Congress Eleanor Holmes Norton who finally was granted a vote of her own and a very capable and a more progay marriage DC City Council
DC is now able to breath a lot easier and is now feeling a lot bolder about pressing on gay issues and on marriage equality.
That folks, was the reality of the times regarding DC, which again is a federal city under Congress without home rule and not a state or not a some kind os independent entity in its own right.
However, if one looks at a chart of what rights each state plus DC added in on that chart gives its gay citizens, (the one I checked several years ago and need to see an updated version of)…… DC and Vermont had back then (numerically speaking) more gay rights under local laws of each state and DC than any other state in the USA. And DC and Vermont were pratically evenly matched for number of listed rights passed by law on that chart.
A gay couple can jointly adopt a child under DC law. A law that once had a very narrow time frame that was in danger of being eliminated by Congressional homophobes many of whom for any number reasons are no longer in Congress today.
DC has a domestic registry nnder its law which as of late DC expanded the scope thereof. DC city attorney Spagnoletti is gay and partnered and he was pushing for marriage equality. Don’t know if he is still in that office. Same for city council member Jim Graham (admistrator of Whitman Walker clinic a DC clinic that dealt with AIDS/HIV care and other pressing health issues for mostly the city’s gay population)wants marriage equality and openly gay councilmember David Catania a very gutsy, tough, caring, passionate and high pressure type who refuses to quit or to take no on trying to resolve various DC issues. I have heard him speak once and this how I perceived him, a high energy, knowledgable, detail-oriented, competent and youthful guy.
With these kinds of people, DC should and/or will be in good hands.
I am glad they are going to recognize gay marriages. This week has been such a landmark week for gay marriage that I can’t even believe it.
http://stuffqueerpeopleneedtoknow.wordpress.com/
Congress better pass this! D.C. is doing the right thing.
Perhaps those same Congressional Republicans should explain why the Full Faith & Credit Clause should not apply to gay American citizens.
Wow…D.C recognizing gay marriages is arguably more significant than Vermont legalizing gay marriages. Now for all those homophobic and on the fence senators, instead of just dismissing gay marriage as that crazy thing that the liberals on the coast sides do, will actually see our progress right there in their home. It’s hard to see gay marriage as this crazy radical thing when it’s right there in your hometown and the sky isn’t falling in. D.C is the very seat of the federal government. This is bound to have very very positive effects for the federal marriage movement. At the very least, it speeds up the removal of DOMA quite a bit.
DC enacted a domestic partners law way back in 1992, not 2007. Funding to implement the program was blocked for years by Congressional conservatives (including some Democrats). But once that funding restriction was dispensed with, our domestic partners law was slowly but methodically expanded so that any registered couple now has virtually all the rights and responsibilities under DC law as married couples do. And Jasper, Congress has the unlimited right to veto our DC laws, so delays in going for full-fledged marriage have been dictated by strategy. Game on.
AWESOME!!! Finally our “full faith and credit” laws will get recognized. We are slowing climbing the ladder and chipping away at things on our way to equality. It’s amazing that the Republicans (Republicant’s) want to do “all they can” to prevent decent basic things like “hospital and nursing home visitations, medical decisions, and inheritance rights” being denied to a minority group. Pathetic.
Pinch Me! All this good news……I MUST be dreaming!
Why is it taking DC so long to legalize gay marriage? That place is a bastion of Democrats and now they are way behind the curve on this one. Vermont and soon-to-be New Hampshire just flew right on by them with this issue. How sad when people’s rights are suffering because of the foot-dragging.