Nov 28, 2003  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO JR.  | COMMENTS     

For at least four years, D.C. Council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) has said he is ready and willing to introduce a same-sex marriage bill whenever local gay leaders give him the go-ahead. But D.C. gay activists have politely rejected Evans’ offer, saying such a bill should be postponed indefinitely.

Pointing to what they view as a hostile atmosphere on Capitol Hill, local activists say Congress would immediately overturn any D.C.-initiated legislation to legalize same-sex civil marriage or civil unions.

Even more menacing, local gay leaders say, a D.C. gay marriage or civil unions measure could prompt Congress to pass a bill prohibiting the city from legalizing same-sex marriage or civil unions in the future. Activists say such a bill most likely would be modeled on the Defense of Marriage Act, the bill Congress passed in 1996 that defines marriage under federal law as a union only between a man and a woman.

Thirty-seven states have since passed their own DOMA laws.

Under the city’s home rule charter, which Congress approved in the early 1970s, all bills passed by the D.C. Council and signed by the mayor must go to Capitol Hill for a 30-day legislative review period. During that time, Congress can vote to overturn a D.C. bill by a simple majority vote.

“I would be perfectly happy to do this,” Evans said this week, in discussing his support for a gay marriage or civil union bill. “But we always follow the leadership of the gay and lesbian community on matters like this,” he said.

While Evans acknowledges Congress would most likely kill a D.C.-initiated gay marriage bill, he said he’s certain he would have at least seven votes needed to pass such a bill in the 13-member Council, which is considered one of the nation’s most liberal legislative bodies.

Gay D.C. Council members David Catania (R-At-Large) and Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) each stated on a 2002 candidate questionnaire issued by the D.C. Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance that they support legalizing same-sex marriage in the District of Columbia. Both said they would also support legislation in D.C. legalizing same-sex civil unions, similar to the arrangement in Vermont.

“I think it would pass the Council with flying colors,” Graham said this week in discussing a possible gay civil marriage bill for D.C. “I have no doubts about that.”

But Graham said he fully agrees with local gay leaders that the time is not right for such legislation because the chances are great that Congress would overturn it or pass a DOMA-like bill for the city.

“Especially now, on the eve of a presidential election, if we submitted a gay marriage bill to Congress, it would become a spring board for the conservative Republicans to make more hay out of the issue,” Graham said. “They would turn the nation’s capital into a test case and use it to hurt the Democrats in the election.

“Is it in our best interest to do that?” Graham said. “Or is it better to wait for 2005, when we might have a Democratic House or a Democratic Senate, or maybe even a President Dean in the White House?”

With a same-sex marriage bill out of the picture for the time being, D.C. gay activists say they are looking toward an incremental approach to obtaining some of the legal rights, privileges and obligations that stem from marriage.

“We conducted a study on this,” said Rick Rosendall, a member and past president of the GLAA. “There are 212 rights and responsibilities under the D.C. Code” associated with marriage, he said.

Small steps toward equality
Rosendall said GLAA plans to ask the Council and D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams to consider changing parts of the city code to make available to same-sex couples as many of these rights, benefits and obligations as possible.

“Short of a marriage bill, there is a lot more we can do to equalize things for our community,” said local gay rights attorney Mindy Daniels, who conducted GLAA’s marriage benefit study.

Daniels said the definition of a family appears in a number of places in the D.C. Code.

“If you change the definition of family to include domestic partners, you give at least a dozen more rights and benefits to same-sex couples,” Daniels said.

The D.C. Council passed a domestic partners bill in the early 1990s. Congress blocked the bill from taking effect for nine years by adding language each year to the city’s appropriations bill barring the city from spending any of its own funds to implement the measure. With the consent of President Bush, Congress two years ago lifted its hold ...