Aug 18, 2006  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO J  | COMMENTS     

Vincent Orange accused his four main rivals of being “morally unfit” to be the mayor of Washington, D.C., because of their support for same-sex marriage.

In an Aug. 5 interview with Channel 5 News, Orange, who represents Ward 5 on the D.C. Council, said he believed gay marriage would become an issue in the final weeks before the Sept. 12 Democratic primary.

“I’m the only one that is opposed to same-sex marriage,” he told Channel 5 reporter John Henrehan. “The other four, they say they believe in God, they go to church, but they’re also for same-sex marriage.”

“So I think coming down the stretch, that’s going to be an issue,” Orange said. “I don’t think they’re morally fit to run the city.”

Gay D.C. Councilmember Jim Graham, a Democrat from Ward 1, said Orange’s remarks most likely would not benefit his campaign.

“He’ll find that in D.C., that kind of appeal is spurned,” Graham said. “This city feels and thinks better than that. So it’s a dead end for him, and I think he should withdraw that statement.”

Orange’s interview with Channel 5 took place in Anacostia at a site where mayoral candidates Adrian Fenty and Marie Johns completed a one-on-one debate minutes earlier. With Orange watching the debate, a member of the audience asked the two candidates if they were “morally fit” to be mayor because of their support for same-sex marriage.

Fenty, the front-runner in the mayoral race, reiterated his longstanding support for same-sex marriage. Johns also reiterated her support for marriage equality for “everyone” as long as churches are allowed to refuse to perform same-sex marriages if they are opposed to such unions.

Gay activists accused Orange of using divisive wedge tactics at a time when he is running far behind Fenty, a Ward 4 councilmember, and Linda Cropp, the Council chair, in a Washington Post public opinion poll conducted in July.

Fenty was the first among the mayoral candidates to express support for same-sex marriage. Cropp, who initially said she favored civil unions over same-sex marriage, later declared she personally backs same-sex marriage while favoring civil unions as a means of averting an almost certain effort by Congress to overturn a D.C. gay marriage law.

“What I believe is the moral position is to increase human rights, not decrease them,” Cropp told the Blade this week.

Alec Evans, a spokesperson for the Fenty campaign, said the candidate remains firm in his support for same-sex marriage and has called Orange’s comments “divisive” and “outrageous.”

Mario Acosta-Velez, president of the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, the city’s largest gay political group, said Orange’s negative characterization of gay marriage deflects attention from the problems faced by gay families who are denied the legal rights that come with marriage.

“Instead of focusing on what he can do to make our city a better place for all communities and families, Councilmember Orange has demonstrated that he would rather define his campaign as one based on petty politics that promotes discrimination and intolerance,” Acosta-Velez said.

Orange lags in poll

Orange first expressed his opposition to gay marriage earlier this year at a forum of Baptist ministers, who have criticized the other candidates for backing same-sex marriage. Most political observers have said the gay marriage issue does not appear to have been a factor in the mayoral race so far.

A Washington Post poll conducted July 13-18 showed Orange receiving only 6 percent of support among registered voters and just 4 percent among those saying they were likely to vote in the Sept. 12 primary.

The Post poll showed that Fenty was leading, with support from 39 percent of registered voters and 42 percent of likely voters. Cropp, his chief rival, had support from 31 percent of registered voters and 32 percent of likely voters.

Former Verizon executive Marie Johns had support from 6 percent of registered voters and 8 percent of likely voters, and lobbyist and Democratic Party activist Michael Brown had support from 6 percent of registered voters and 4 percent of likely voters, the Post poll showed.

Johns has said she, too, supports same-sex marriage rights for gays, with the caveat shared by Cropp and Fenty that the city should not adopt a gay marriage law until the current, Republican-controlled Congress is replaced by lawmakers more supportive of gay rights.

Brown said Orange misrepresented his position by labeling him as a gay marriage supporter. In a telephone interview this week, Brown said he supports same-sex marriage in principle but supports civil unions rather than marriage for gay couples at the present time, when a hostile Congress would likely take ...