By DCist contributer Shauna Miller

The mere acknowledgment of the existence of gays in President-elect Barack Obama’s victory speech
brought historic warm fuzzies for many of us, but that doesn’t mean that marriage-minded gay folks are holding their breath for movement on the issue under Obama. Clearly, there
are some other priorities that want attention, and in any case, both Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden have said directly that they don’t support gay marriage.

But like any good politician, Obama’s got an inclusive (if vague) message for the hopefuls. “I’m running for President to build an America that lives up to our founding promise of equality for all, a promise that extends to our gay brothers and sisters,” he said in an open letter released through Obama Pride during the campaign. “It’s wrong to have millions of Americans living as second-class citizens in this nation.”

What that will work out to actually mean remains to be seen, but today, Join the Impact — the people who brought you November’s nationwide Proposition 8 protests — is staging another nationwide initiative. Their goal is to collect 1 million signatures calling for the repeal
of the Defense of Marriage Act, which permits states to refuse to recognize same-sex unions sanctified elsewhere, even when the relationship is considered a marriage by another state.

Organizers plan to present the signatures to Obama on his first day in office as a reminder of his campaign promises to address LGBTQ issues. The D.C. effort begins in Dupont Circle at 1:30 p.m., with volunteers canvassing seven areas in the District to collect old-school paper-and-pen signatures.

Photo by yospyn