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| ‘I’m the only one that is opposed to same-sex marriage. The other four, they say they believe in God, they go to church, but they’re also for same-sex marriage,’ mayoral candidate Vincent Orange said of his rivals in a recent interview. |
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HOME > NEWS > LOCAL
By: LOU CHIBBARO J COMMENTS
 
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away existing domestic partnership laws if the city were to adopt a gay marriage law.
“I don’t know what he was trying to say on the question of morality,” Brown said of Orange.
“It seems that the mayor of the District of Columbia needs to be someone who brings us together rather than divides us,” Brown said. “I will be a leader who brings us together, even if we disagree on a particular issue.”
Orange and a spokesperson for his campaign did not return a call seeking comment on his remarks.
A mostly pro-gay record
Orange has had a mostly supportive record on gay and AIDS issues during his years on the Council, with opposition to same-sex marriage and the relocation of some gay entertainment clubs in his ward surfacing as his only recent disagreements with gay activists.
During a Stein Club mayoral forum held earlier this year at the offices of the Human Rights Campaign, Orange downplayed his opposition to same-sex marriage. He said he favored granting gays all the rights and privileges of marriage by expanding the city’s domestic partnership law.
As chair of the Council’s Committee on Government Operations, Orange pushed through a bill introduced by Graham to make the mayor’s Office of LGBT Affairs a permanent part of the city government. He has said he strongly supports provisions in the city’s human rights law banning discrimination against gays and transgender persons.
Some Stein Club members speculated that Orange might have chosen to write off the gay vote after the club voted in June to endorse Cropp and after most gay activists have lined up behind either Cropp or Fenty.
Rick Rosendall, vice president of the Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance, said Orange lost support from many gays earlier this year when he organized a meeting at a Baptist church in Ward 5 to line up opposition to the relocation in his ward of gay entertainment businesses displaced by the new baseball stadium.
Gay business owners have said they were looking for possible sites in Ward 5 because it has the city’s largest remaining warehouse districts, where buildings would be most suitable for conversion into nightclubs or other entertainment establishments.
During the meeting, Orange called on ministers and neighborhood activists in the ward to demand that the Council defeat a bill introduced by Graham that would amend the city’s liquor law to allow the gay clubs to move to appropriately zoned locations in other parts of the city.
Noting that some of the gay businesses were adult oriented with nude dancers, Orange said their relocation to Ward 5 would create a “stain” on the community and be detrimental to children.
Graham later withdrew hi
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