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LOU CHIBBARO JR.
Friday, July 16, 2004
A Republican congresswoman from Virginia introduced a bill on July 7 that
would prohibit the District of Columbia from legalizing same-sex marriage or
recognizing such marriages from other states.
Rep. Jo Ann Davis, whose district includes the cities of Fredericksburg and
Williamsburg, dropped her bill into the legislative hopper without any co-sponsors
and without releasing a statement elaborating on her reasons for introducing
the legislation.
Davis’ bill, H.R. 4773, is just one sentence long. It states, “In the District
of Columbia, for all legal purposes, ‘marriage’ means the union of one man
and one woman.”
Neither Davis nor her press secretary, Chris Connelly, returned calls seeking
comment by press time.
“We are sitting ducks for this type of thing,” said D.C. Congressional Delegate
Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.). “The fact that someone chose to do this is
no surprise.”
If enacted by Congress, the bill would add D.C. to the list of 38 states governed
by a Defense of Marriage Act, or “DOMA” laws, aimed at banning same-sex marriage
within their jurisdictions. Virginia has such a DOMA law while Maryland does
not, though Maryland law defines marriage as limited to opposite-sex couples.
District Mayor Anthony Williams and a majority of the members of the D.C.
Council have said they strongly oppose such laws, saying they favor, in principle,
the legalization of same-sex marriage.
Norton said she would enlist the help of House Democratic leaders to oppose
Davis’ bill.
Norton and other Capitol Hill observers said the lack of co-sponsors and the
apparent decision not to draw immediate attention to her bill suggests that
Davis may be seeking to lay the groundwork for attaching the measure in the
form of an amendment to the D.C. appropriations bill.
The influential House Appropriations Committee was scheduled to mark up the
city’s fiscal year 2005 appropriations measure this week.
Although the committee chair, Rep. Bill Young (R-Fla.), has said he opposes
attaching non-germane policy-related amendments to appropriations bills, gay
activists expressed concern that the Republican-controlled committee might
go along with an amendment to ban gay marriage in D.C.
Even if the committee rejects such an amendment, activists said, the full
House has approved anti-gay amendments to D.C. appropriations bills in the
past and could do so again this year.
Norton said she expects House Democrats to help her in opposing Davis’ bill.
But she said many House members don’t view D.C.-related legislation as having
an important impact on their home districts. Norton said House members from
conservative or swing districts sometimes vote for anti-gay amendments to the
D.C. budget bill to avoid being portrayed by critics as having voted for “gay
rights.”
Davis’ bill was referred to the House Government Reform Committee, which is
chaired by Congressman Tom Davis (R-Va.), who is not related to Rep. Jo Ann
Davis.
Tom Davis, whose district includes Fairfax County, has declined to co-sponsor
the Federal Marriage Amendment, a proposed constitutional amendment to ban
gay marriage. The Senate rejected the FMA this week on a procedural vote.
Jo Ann Davis is a co-sponsor of the FMA but she has not been an outspoken
gay rights opponent. Information on the Web site for her congressional office
shows she has devoted much of her attention to national security and military
procurement issues in a district that includes military installations and civilian
employees who work for the military.
A bill to ban gay marriage in the District has
been assigned to Rep. Tom Davis’ (right) Governmental
Affairs Committee. The Virginia Republican represents parts of Fairfax
County. (AP Photo) |
A former real estate broker, Jo Ann Davis was first elected to the House in
2000. She scored a zero on the Human Rights Campaign scorecard for sponsorships
and votes taken by the 107th Congress, covering 2001-02.
The bill to ban gay marriage in the District comes as D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams
still holds back a legal opinion by the city’s chief attorney on whether D.C.
laws permit the city to recognize same-sex marriages issued in Massachusetts
or other states.
Sources close to the city government have said the opinion by D.C. Attorney
General Robert Spagnoletti, who is gay, holds that same-sex marriages from
others states could be legally recognized in the District.
Last month, Williams told a meeting of his gay community advisory committee
that he would release the findings of Spagnoletti’s legal opinion on or before
the July 4th weekend. Williams did not release the opinion then, and his office
has declined to say when or whether he will do so.
The Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance, a small D.C. group of veteran activists,
has cautioned Williams against releasing the opinion and against recognizing
same-sex marriages from Massachusetts for the foreseeable future, fearing congressional
intervention to bar gay marriage in D.C.
GLAA spokesperson Rick Rosendall said this week that the group sent an e-mail
alert to gay activists throughout the country calling on them to urge their
congressional representatives to oppose the Davis bill.
D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams is
still withholding a legal opinion by the city’s chief attorney on whether
D.C. laws permit the city to recognize same-sex marriages issued in Massachusetts
or other states. Williams had told gay supporters he would release the
report of the Fourth of July weekend. |
“We’ve known something was coming for a long time,” Rosendall said.
Rosendall noted that the bill would not overturn the city’s domestic partners
law and would not prevent the city from passing a civil unions bill in the
future.
“It could be worse,” Rosendall said. “But it’s still obnoxious because it
disenfranchises us.”
The version of the D.C. appropriations bill that the House Judiciary Subcommittee
on the District of Columbia approved July 7 includes a series of “riders” that
Congress has attached to the bill each year since the 1990s.
They include provisions banning the city from using any of its funds to implement
a hypodermic needle exchange program to curtail the spread of HIV among injection
drug abusers, a provision overturning a voter initiative that legalized the
use of marijuana for medical purposes, and a provision that bars the city from
funding abortions.
Lou Chibbaro Jr. can be reached at lchibbaro@washblade.com.
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