Nov 14, 2008  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO JR  | COMMENTS     

Gay D.C. Councilmember David Catania (I-At-Large) said he and several of his colleagues are considering introducing a bill in January to legalize same-sex marriage in the nation’s capital if a majority of the Council’s 13 members sign on as co-authors of the legislation.

Catania’s move toward offering a same-sex marriage bill comes at a time when nearly all local activists have expressed support for such a bill and Mayor Adrian Fenty and all but one member of the Council has pledged to vote in favor of the legislation.

But a number of activists have joined some Council members in questioning whether 2009 would be the best time to introduce such a bill considering the decision by voters last week to ban same-sex marriage via ballot measures in California, Arizona and Florida.

“There isn’t going to be an easy way to do this,” Catania told the Blade. “It’s going to be a lot of work to do. But I believe that at the end of the day, the citizens of the District of Columbia are fair-minded people.”

Catania said he is discussing the issue with local activists and plans to consult with the city’s non-voting congressional delegate, Eleanor Homes Norton (D-D.C.), over whether to move ahead with a same-sex marriage bill next year.

Catania said he and his Council colleagues are aware of the contentious campaign in California by same-sex marriage opponents that led to the passage of Proposition 8. The ballot proposition amends the state’s constitution, reversing a California Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that legalized same-sex marriage.

A same-sex marriage bill being worked on for D.C. would clearly distinguish between civil marriage, which confers the legal rights of marriage, and the religious aspect of marriage, which would remain under the full control of churches, Catania said.

“This is not going to be a law constructed by our courts,” he said. “It will come from our elected city government.”

If opponents try to fight a D.C. same-sex marriage law by a ballot referendum, which is an option available under the city’s election law, “then that’s what will happen,” Catania said.

“I have reason to believe the residents of our city would side with equality,” he said. “I think this is worth the fight.”

Council member Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3), a law professor with a specialty in constitutional law, said she agrees with Catania’s plans to introduce a same-sex marriage bill in early 2009 and would help draft the measure.

“I’m going to be working with Council member Catania and our other colleagues, and we will try to move a bill very quickly, as soon as the new session starts,” Cheh said. “That’s our intention.”

Most activists and Council members agreed that Congress would have invoked its authority to overturn a D.C. same-sex marriage bill during the Bush administration.

When Democrats regained control of Congress following the November 2006 election, activists said they wanted to wait until after the 2008 presidential and congressional elections to assess whether a D.C. same-sex marriage bill might be feasible. The election of a Democratic president and the election of more gay-supportive Democrats to Congress was seen as tipping the scales in favor of introducing a marriage bill.

Last week’s election of Democrat Barack Obama as president and the victory of more Democrats in the House and Senate were favorable signs that a D.C. same-sex marriage bill could clear a congressional hurdle, activists said.

But some activists said the approval of anti-gay marriage amendments in California and elsewhere appeared to negate the benefits of an Obama presidency and the Democrats’ larger majority in Congress.

“Unfortunately, the electoral blow to marriage equality in Arizona, California and Florida is a bad blow,” said Rick Rosendall, vice president of the Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance. “And we are not ready to wage the initiative fight that would inevitably be set off by the District’s passage of a same-sex marriage bill, even if Congress allows it to stand.”

Local gay Democratic activist Phil Pannell, a longtime political organizer in the city’s mostly black neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River, said he was concerned that a ballot referendum seeking to outlaw gay marriage in Washington would be supported by large numbers of black voters who are conservative on social issues such as marriage.

“I would have to say that there’s a reasonable chance that something like that would pass,” he said.

Darren Glymph, vice president of the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, the city’s largest gay political group, said he and other black gay activists, including D.C. lesbian activist Carlene Cheatam, believe gay groups in California did not effectively build ...