Nov 26, 2004  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO JR.  | COMMENTS     

The Rev. James Wilson, assistant pastor of the New Bethel Baptist Church in Northwest D.C., said he and the members of his mostly African-American congregation support the concept of civil rights for all city residents, including gays.

But when it comes to the issue of marriage, Wilson said, members of the New Bethel Baptist Church view things from a perspective of church teachings rather than civil rights.

“We would not be in favor of gay marriage,” he said.

Gay activists familiar with D.C.’s majority African-American electorate say Wilson’s comment points to a dramatic paradox in the voting trends of large numbers of city residents: while they are among the country’s most liberal voters on economic issues, they have the potential for being among the most conservative on social issues such as gay marriage.

This assessment has led some gay activists to believe that a proposed ballot initiative by Ward 4 resident Lisa L. Greene to ban same-sex marriage in the District of Columbia has a chance of passing, just as similar measures passed in 11 states in the Nov. 2 election.

“When it comes to gay marriage, I’m afraid something like this can pass here in D.C.,” said gay activist Phil Pannell, a longtime civic leader in Ward 8.

Initiative on hold, for now
Greene withdrew her proposed initiative last week after an attorney with the D.C. Board of Elections & Ethics told her she used an incorrect legislative format in her wording of the initiative and she failed to submit a required campaign finance statement. Greene said she would correct her mistakes and resubmit the initiative in the next few weeks.

It could not be determined at press time whether Greene has the support needed to obtain more than 19,000 petition signatures needed to place the initiative on the ballot once the election board approves the document’s wording. But some gay activists and local political observers believe Greene or someone else will come forward soon to place such a measure on the ballot. Religious right groups from outside the city would likely provide financial and logistical support for this effort, activists said.

“It’s going to happen,” said Donna Payne, coordinator of faith related issues for the Human Rights Campaign, the D.C.-based national gay civil rights group.

Payne, a D.C. resident for 17 years, said she is hopeful that D.C. voters will reject a marriage ban initiative. Among other things, Payne said a large number of openly gay ministers and church pastors in D.C. have worked for years with their straight counterparts on a wide range of social and charitable issues and projects.

“They’ve been part of the faith community for a long time,” Payne said of the gay ministers. “So we’re starting from a point, unlike in many of the other states, where the two sides know each other and are willing to sit down and talk. Maybe we can work something out.”

The Rev. Candis Shultis, pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church of D.C., which has a largely gay congregation, said a group of both gay and non-gay ministers have approached her to lead a committee of religious leaders who would oppose a D.C. marriage initiative.

“We will try to pull together a planning group to deal with this,” Shultis said. “This will be a theological discussion, and we need to plan how we should address it.”

At the same time, Shultis said, people of faith would point out that same-sex marriage is a matter of justice and equality for lesbians and gays, and that this goes beyond the issue of religion.

Archbishop George Augustus Stallings, senior pastor of the Imani Temple African American Catholic Congregation on Capitol Hill, said his congregation would likely support a ban on same-sex marriage, even though most church members strongly support civil rights for all city residents. He said he believes his congregation is representative of the majority of the city’s African-American voters.

“If I had to wager on how this would do, I feel we would see the same result that we saw in the 11 states that passed it,” Stallings said.

“This is a very divisive issue,” Stallings said. “In D.C., you are seeing blacks taking a more conservative view on this, even though the black community tends to be very liberal on other issues.”

Stallings predicts that most ...