Nov 12, 2004  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO JR. and KEN SAIN | COMMENTS     

A Northeast D.C. woman hopes to add the District to the list of U.S. jurisdictions that prohibit same-sex marriage. She has started a group called D.C. Citizens for Marriage that intends to place before District voters a referendum that would permanently ban gay marriage in the nation’s capital.

Ward 4 resident Lisa L. Greene filed the necessary paperwork with the D.C. Board of Elections & Ethics on Oct. 4. That body has scheduled a Nov. 18 hearing to determine if Greene’s initiative meets the criteria required for a referendum.

“I don’t have a problem if someone is a lesbian or a homosexual,” Greene said. “But I feel their personal preferences should be kept private. If two people want to live together, that’s their choice. It’s my belief that marriage is an institution between a man and a woman only.”

The text of the proposed referendum, titled the District of Columbia Marriage Protection Act, reads: “The Citizens of the District of Columbia and the District Council defines and preserves marriage as a relationship between one man and one woman only.”

If the DCBOEE approves, Greene and her allies would have to collect more than 19,000 signatures in 180 days to bring the measure before District voters, according to Bill O’Field, DCBOEE spokesperson. The total number of valid signatures needed is 5 percent of the number of registered voters in the District.

Activists caught off guard
Many gay activists were surprised by Greene’s action and first learned about it when contacted by the Blade.

“We in the Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance believe it is wrong to subject the civil rights of any minority to the whim of the majority,” Rick Rosendall, vice president for political affairs for GLAA, wrote in a letter to members of the D.C. Council in response to the effort.

“As no marriage licenses are being issued to same-sex couples here, and no legislation is being contemplated that would change this, a peremptory popular vote on the matter amounts to a solution without a problem.”

Gay marriages have not been performed in the District, and D.C. courts have ruled that they are not allowed under current D.C. law.

Still, many gay residents have been awaiting the release of an opinion by D.C. Attorney General Robert Spagnoletti on whether the District is required to recognize gay marriages from other jurisdictions, like Massachusetts. Mayor Anthony Williams has refused to release that opinion.

Greene claims to have 25 volunteers lined up to gather signatures, as well as the support of a number of local pastors. She also said the conservative legal group American Center for Law & Justice is also assisting their efforts.

The group is required to submit a statement of organization and a verified statement of contributions to the D.C. Office of Campaign Finance before next week’s hearing. As of Wednesday, it had not done so.

Greene said the group intends to comply with the requirement. If it does not, the DCBOEE will likely reject the request for an initiative drive, DCBOEE spokesperson O’Field said.

A threat to black families?
Greene, who is black, said she is bringing this issue forth now because she believes gay marriage is especially a threat to African Americans.

“As an African American, I feel it’s important to preserve the family,” Greene said. “Statistics show African Americans have the nation’s highest rate of out-of-marriage births.”

Greene, a native Washingtonian, said research shows that children born to unwed parents do far worse in all areas of life than children born in families with a husband and wife who are married.

She added that she’s concerned about large numbers of African-American women who are infected with HIV from black men who have sex with other men. She did not elaborate on how this is related to the issue of same-sex marriage.

Legal options weighed
Representatives of GLAA, a small group of local gay activists, said they are researching legal options and plan to testify at next week’s meeting. They think a law they helped pass decades ago may help defeat the initiative request.

In the 1980s, GLAA pushed for a law that bans D.C. initiatives or referenda that would remove civil rights protections conferred by the D.C. Human Rights Act. However, it’s unclear whether same-sex marriage could be considered a civil rights protection conferred under the city’s human rights law.

Arthur Spitzer, lead attorney with the D.C. chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the ACLU plans to oppose the initiative on its merits.