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D.C. Councilmember David Catania could introduce a bill to legalize same-sex marriage in the nation’s capital as soon as January. (Photo by Bob Bird/AP)
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HOME > NEWS > LOCAL
By: LOU CHIBBARO JR COMMENTS
 
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alliances with black churches and the black community on the grassroots level in their efforts to fight the measure.
Exit polls show that 69 percent of back voters supported Proposition 8.
“From the perspective of the black community, to blame us for what happened in California is not justified and is unfair,” Glymph said. “We need to be more effective and our leadership and public image needs to be more diverse here in D.C. if we are going to take on this fight.
“I’m not 100 percent sure that a referendum would fail here.”
Cheatam also said she believed an anti-gay marriage referendum in the District could win.
“The gay and lesbian community doesn’t have enough interface with the general population to ensure that we could defeat it,” she said.
Rosendall and other local gay leaders noted that Democrats won their majority in the House of Representatives by the election of mostly moderate- to conservative-leaning Democrats from swing districts.
The possibility of those Democrats joining conservative Republicans to vote to kill a D.C. gay marriage bill must be considered in deciding whether to move ahead with such legislation, activists have said.
A House Democratic aid, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders in the House and Senate would likely block an attempt by Republicans to overturn a D.C. marriage bill in a direct, up-or-down vote.
The aide said it would be more difficult, but still possible, to defeat an attempt to overturn a marriage bill through an amendment to an appropriations bill, a method Republicans have used to try to circumvent the Democratic majority.
Gay Democratic activist Michael Crawford, who serves as chair of D.C. for Marriage, a same-sex marriage advocacy group, said he also had doubts about moving ahead with a D.C. gay marriage bill in January.
Crawford, who also served as a local volunteer leader for the Obama campaign, said that although Republicans lost seats in the House and Senate in last week’s election, the mostly far-right Republicans remaining in Congress would likely use a D.C. gay marriage bill as a wedge issue to divert attention from Obama’s legislative initiatives on the economy or health care.
“Many of us are concerned that at least some Republicans would use a same-sex marriage bill coming from D.C. to inflict political damage on Obama, like they used gays in the military to go after President Clinton in his first year in office,” Crawford said.
“I think a smarter approach, or the next step for us would be to push for having same-sex marriages that<
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