Tags : gay rights
Group Requests 2010 Ballot Initiative To Ban Gay Marriages In D.C.
Washington, D.C. (AHN) – A group of opponents of same-sex marriage have filed a request with the District of Columbia Board of Elections for a ballot initiative next year that would define marriage as between a man and a woman.
The District began recognizing gay marriages on July 7, the end of a 30-day congressional review required after Mayor Adrian Fenty signed a bill providing same-sex couples who are married elsewhere the same rights of civil marriage in D.C.
The new law, which was passed by the D.C. Council on May 5, does not affect District’s 1992 law allowing unmarried couples to register as domestic partners. That 1992 statute, however, only took effect in 2002 when Congress lifted a ban on using any public money on the District’s domestic partner registry.
Stand4MarriageDC.com, a coalition of community leaders and pastors, says it filed its Defense of Marriage Initiative because the D.C. Council’s “redefinition of marriage will permanently impact D.C. businesses, schools, social activities, and the family unit without the voice of residents being heard.”
“The District of Columbia, with its nearly 600,000 residents, is unlike any other place in the world,” Rev. Walter Fauntroy said in a statement. “It is the seat of Democracy for the free world. It is unfortunate that its own residents are not allowed to participate in the democratic process.”
Apart from Fauntroy, Bishop Harry Jackson, ANC Commissioner Robert King, Rev. Dale Wafer, Bishop James Silver, Rev. Anthony Evans, Rev. Melvin Dupree and Elder Howard Butler are part of Stand4MarriageDC.com.
There has been a growing movement nationwide to grant gay couples the same rights and privileges as different-sex couples despite stiff opposition from conservative groups such as the National Organization for Marriage, which warns that gay marriages have an adverse impact on children and people of faith.
A total of six states now allow same-sex marriages, four of which adopted their statutes in the past five months.
Massachusetts, the first state in the nation to legalize same-sex marriages, sued the federal government in July over the constitutionality of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which provides the federal definition of marriage as the legal union between a man and a woman. In California, there is a push to repeal the ban on same-sex marriages, Proposition 8, through a referendum in next year’s ballot.
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