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By: LOU CHIBBARO JR. COMMENTS
 
D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) said he plans to introduce a resolution
next week calling on the Council to “work with the mayor” to authorize the
city to recognize same-sex marriages issued in other states if the city’s chief
lawyer decides that D.C. law allows such recognition.
Robert Spagnoletti, a gay attorney who serves as the city’s corporation counsel,
has said he is preparing a legal opinion for Mayor Anthony Williams on whether
the District has the authority to recognize same-sex marriages issued in Massachusetts.
Spagnoletti said through a spokesperson earlier this month that his office
was reviewing D.C. laws to determine how the city should respond if gay couples
who marry in Massachusetts seek legal recognition of their marriages in the
District.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has ordered that state to begin issuing
marriage licenses to same-sex couples beginning May 17.
Graham, who is gay, said nine of the Council’s 13 members have promised to
back his resolution, guaranteeing that it will pass. He said he plans to introduce
the resolution at the Council’s March 16 meeting.
Last week, gay D.C. Council member David Catania (R-At-Large) introduced a
separate resolution declaring the Council’s opposition to a U.S. constitutional
amendment banning gay marriage. All 13 Council members signed on as sponsors
to the Catania resolution, which was expected to come up for a vote March 16
or April 6.
Graham said he decided against a resolution calling on the mayor or the corporation
counsel to immediately recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states.
He said he chose to link the resolution to the legal findings of the corporation
counsel because D.C. recognition of same-sex marriages from other states should
be based on a “legal analysis” rather than on politics.
“If the corporation counsel of the District of Columbia concludes that our
laws require or permit the recognition of same-sex marriages legally performed
in another state,” Graham’s resolution states, “the Council of the District
of Columbia will work with the mayor to ensure that such marriages will receive
the recognition, rights and responsibilities due them under our laws.”
“What this says is if the legal analysis by the corporation counsel says we
are legally allowed or required to do this, we will take action to make this
happen,” Graham said.
Graham disclosed his plans for introducing his resolution one day after the
District’s Congressional delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), warned gay activists
that anti-gay members of Congress might try to pass a law prohibiting the city
from recognizing same-sex marriages.
Norton, speaking at a March 8 meeting of the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club,
said that if a proposed federal constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage
is defeated in Congress this year, as Capitol Hill observers predict, anti-gay
lawmakers might attempt to impose a similarly worded amendment on the District.
One route that these lawmakers might take, Norton said, would be to amend
the D.C. Charter to include a ban on gay marriage for the District. The D.C.
Charter, which Congress passed in 1971, establishes the structure of the city’s
limited home rule government. It leaves Congress with final authority to overturn
laws passed by the D.C. Council or to impose its own laws on the city. The
charter is sometimes referred to as the District’s constitution.
“I’m very worried,” Norton said. “They know they don’t have the votes to pass
a constitutional amendment.” Norton told Stein Club members that socially conservative
House members would love to use D.C. as their trophy to show their home state
constituents that they succeeded in passing some measure to “protect” marriage.
Same-sex marriages are now being
lawfully performed, or will soon be performed, in other
jurisdictions. D.C. residents may be married, or may
have been married, pursuant to the laws in those states.
At this time, the Corporation Counsel
is considering a legal opinion on whether our laws require
or permit the District of Columbia to recognize valid same-sex
marriages performed in another jurisdiction.
If the Corporation Counsel of the District
of Columbia concludes that our laws require or permit the
recognition of same-sex marriages legally performed in
another state, the Council of the District of Columbia
will work with the Mayor to ensure that such marriages
will receive the recognition, rights and responsibilities
due them under our laws.
Council members co–sponsoring ‘marriage
recognition’ resolution:
Linda Cropp ...
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