Photo by jsmjr

Ahhhh. With D.C.’s same-sex marriage law now before Congress for a cursory 30-day review, we can all sit back and wait for the happy couples to exchange vows, right? Maybe not so much.

This week has seen a flurry of activity in the ongoing battle for marriage equality in the District. On Wednesday, Bishop Harry Jackson and his ilk appeared in D.C. Superior Court to request that the city be forced to hold a vote on whether or not to permit same-sex marriage. The D.C. Board of Elections twice ruled last year that such votes would violate the city’s Human Rights Act, a charge Jackson and his supporters are contesting.

For yesterday’s court battle, Jackson showed up with a little muscle — a Friend of the Court brief signed by 39 congressional Republicans, including Minority Leader John Boehner (Ohio), Minority Whip Eric Cantor (Va.), and senators James Inhofe (Ok.) and Roger Wicker (Miss.). Their arguments — which can be read in full here (.PDF) — boil down to this: since the District wrongfully amended its referendum law in 1977, prohibiting any referenda based on the provisions of the Human Rights Act is a non-starter. The brief also argued that a vote on same-sex marriage simply wouldn’t violate the provisions of the Human Rights Act because gay couples would not be discriminated against since they would still be free to marry people of the opposite sex. (Just stop being gay, folks, and you can marry!)