A
contingent
of
more
than
two-dozen
gay
activists
joined
Mayor
Adrian
Fenty,
Washington
congressional
Del.
Eleanor
Holmes
Norton
and
about
400
city
residents
last
week
in
visits
to
offices
of
members
of
Congress,
where
they
urged
lawmakers
to
allow
the
District
to
have
one
voting
member
in
the
House
of
Representatives.
“This
impacts
us
as
much
as
anyone
else,
because
our
rights
are
on
the
line,”
said
veteran
D.C.
gay
activist
Phil
Pannell,
during
a
Feb.
12
meeting
of
the
Gertrude
Stein
Democratic
Club,
the
city’s
largest
gay
political
group.
Pannell
and
others
involved
with
the
local
group
D.C.
Vote
used
the
Stein
Club
meeting
as
one
of
many
recruiting
sessions
to
line
up
gay
community
support
for
the
Capitol
Hill
lobbying
visits
on
Feb.
15,
which
they
dubbed
Congress
Day
2007.
The
congressional
visits
were
aimed
at
building
support
for
H.R.
328,
the
D.C.
Voting
Rights
Act
of
2007,
which
calls
for
creating
a
new
seat
in
the
House
of
Representatives
for
the
District
of
Columbia,
which
currently
has
a
non-voting
Delegate
to
the
House,
Democrat
Eleanor
Holmes
Norton.
The
newly
convened
Democratic-controlled
House
recently
gave
Norton
privileges
to
vote
on
the
House
floor
when
the
House
assembles
as
the
Committee
of
the
Whole,
a
parliamentary
body
that
approves
legislation
on
a
preliminary
basis.
But
Norton
is
barred
from
casting
a
final
vote
on
all
bills
and
resolutions,
a
development
many
political
activists
and
reformist
groups
say
disenfranchises
D.C.
residents
from
representation
in
Congress.
“For
us,
it’s
a
human
rights
issue,”
said
gay
activist
and
former
Stein
Club
President
Brad
Lewis.
“We
are
in
year
four
in
the
Iraq
war,
to
promote
democracy
thousands
of
miles
across
the
world.
It’s
important
for
people
to
realize
that
not
everybody
in
this
country
has
full
democracy,”
he
said.
Lewis
and
other
activists
acknowledge
that
the
Voting
Rights
Act
would
have
little
or
no
practical
advantage
in
passing
gay
rights
legislation
pending
in
Congress.
They
say
they
support
the
voting
rights
measure
for
the
collective
benefit
of
all
D.C.
residents.
The
Voting
Rights
Act,
introduced
by
Norton
and
Rep.
Tom
Davis
(R-Va.),
includes
a
compromise
provision
that
offsets
the
creation
of
a
House
seat
for
D.C.
by
creating
an
additional
seat
for
Utah,
increasing
the
number
of
Utah
House
members
from
three
to
four.
Norton
and
Davis
said
including
the
Utah
provision
was
the
only
way
they
could
line
up
enough
support
for
the
bill
from
Republicans
to
give
it
a
reasonable
chance
of
passing.
Without
the
provision,
Republican
leaders
said
they
would
oppose
adding
a
House
member
from
the
overwhelmingly
Democratic
District
of
Columbia,
where
the
new
member
would
be
certain
to
be
a
liberal
Democrat.
The
Republican-leaning
Utah
would
be
expected
to
send
a
Republican
to
Congress
to
fill
the
new
Utah
seat,
neutralizing
the
political
impact
of
the
District’s
new
House
member.
But
the
Norton-Davis
compromise
had
the
unintended
effect
of
drawing
strong
opposition
from
Democratic
Party
leaders
in
Utah,
who
claim
the
legislation
could
result
in
the
loss
of
Utah’s
only
Democratic
House
member.
Two
of
Utah’s
three
House
members
are
Republican.
The
third
member,
Jim
Matheson,
from
the
state’s
2nd
congressional
district,
is
a
Democrat.
Under
the
Norton-Davis
bill,
the
addition
of
a
fourth
House
seat
would
require
the
Republican-controlled
Utah
Legislature
to
redraw
the
boundaries
of
the
existing
three
districts.
Democrats
fear
the
legislature
would
set
the
new
boundaries
in
a
way
that
would
place
Republicans
in
the
majority
in
all
four
districts,
leading
to
Matheson’s
defeat
in
the
next
election.
The
Utah
Republican
Party
supports
the
bill.
Speaker
of
the
House
Nancy
Pelosi
(D-Calif.)
told
Norton
and
Davis
that
House
Democratic
leaders
also
strongly
support
the
bill
on
grounds
that
D.C.
has
a
right
to
have
voting
representation
in
Congress.
Stein
Club
President
Mario
Acosta-Velez
said
the
club
would
urge
gay
Democrats
throughout
the
country
to
ask
their
members
of
Congress
to
vote
for
the
bill.
“It’s
a
matter
of
ending
disenfranchisement
for
all
of
the
citizens
of
the
District
of
Columbia,”
he
said.
“We
think
it’s
the
right
thing
to
do.”
