Same-Sex Marriage Supporters Rally, Wait for Final Vote
Supporters of marriage equality packed the gym at Northwest's Kennedy Recreation Center Monday night for a "Rally for D.C. Marriage Equality." The mood was celebratory on the eve of the D.C. Council's final vote on a bill legalizing same-sex marriage in the District, which is expected to pass easily later today.
Sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign, the rally brought together residents, council members and groups from the African-American and faith communities who have worked to gain grassroots community support for the bill this year across lines of creed and color.
Singers from the Unity Fellowship Choir led the charged-up crowd in song, and Rev. Dr. Dennis Wiley of Covenant Baptist Church and D.C. Clergy United for Marriage delivered a speech drawing parallels to the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
"If we fail to see the interconnectedness of oppression, we are fooling ourselves," he said. "There is not hierarchy of oppression. Suffering is suffering. Prejudice is prejudice. And it's all wrong."
Council members Michael A. Brown (I-At Large), David Catania (I-At Large), Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) and Harry Thomas, Jr. (D-Ward 5) were in attendance.
Thomas, whose Dec. 1 vote in favor of the legislation was received with some controversy, reiterated his support for the bill.
"I represent a ward torn on this issue, where people had different views on what marriage equality meant," he said. "And as I spoke to ANC members today, I reminded them that there are things you must do when justice is at your doorstep. As a straight, African-American man raised in the Baptist Church, I knew the concerns of my community, who I had to take along with me."
Catania paused to thank two council members who voted against the bill: Yvette Alexander (D-Ward 7) and Marion Barry (D-Ward 8). "I'm not exactly thrilled with his vote," he said of Barry, "but I don't want us to lose sight of his contributions." Catania also noted that Alexander had voted for earlier legislation that recognized same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions.
Catania called the pending vote "a victory not just for us, but for 40 years of people—Frank Kameny and others—who laid the foundations."
Today's final vote is largely procedural, following the council's 11-2 approval of the bill Dec. 1. The measure then goes to Mayor Adrian Fenty, who has pledged to sign it. It then enters a mandatory 30-day congressional review period before it can become law. Catania said he expects another 11-2 vote today, with Barry and Alexander again dissenting.
Catania also said he did not expect an amendment to be made to accommodate objections made by Catholic Charities concerning extending spousal benefits to same-sex married couples employed by the religious organization.
"The solution rests in their hands," he said, noting the group could follow the example of Georgetown University in making benefits available to all "legally domiciled adults" instead of same-sex spouses. "This does not require a legislative fix. We are not willing to create an exemption for public discrimination."
Ward 5 ANC Commissioner Bob King, who opposes the bill, recently announced that he had contacted members of Congress to weigh in on the measure and force a popular vote on the issue.
Aisha Mills, president of the Campaign for All D.C. Families, which has functioned as the coordinating body for the marriage equality movement in D.C., cautioned that congressional intervention is still "a very real possibility." She said a strategy was in place should that come to pass.
"We already lost 32 states to the opposition," she said. "D.C. will not be number 33."