Jun 27, 2008   | COMMENTS     

D.C. Council Member Marion Barry said that he would vote for a bill legalizing same-sex marriage in the city, if such a measure is introduced.

It’s the first time the former mayor has publicly revealed his position on a marriage bill. His remarks came on June 18 at a meeting of the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, Washington’s largest gay political group,

Until the Stein Club’s meeting last week, Barry had declined to say whether he would support legislation to legalize same-sex marriage.

In response to a question at the meeting, Barry said, “I don’t think you should make that question a litmus test. But if a bill like that were to come up, I would vote for it.”

During the meeting, the Stein Club endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama by unanimous voice vote, with club members who backed rival presidential contender Hillary Clinton vowing to unite behind the U.S. senator from Illinois.

The club’s endorsement of Obama came five months after a January endorsement meeting in which Stein members voted 50.6 percent to 41.3 percent to back Clinton over Obama. But the club made no endorsement at the time because Clinton fell short of the 60 percent majority needed for an endorsement under the club’s rules.

Stein Club President Mario Acosta-Velez said the club will enthusiastically join forces with the Obama campaign between now and the November election.

In contests for the city’s Sept. 9 Democratic primary, Stein Club members voted to endorse incumbent D.C. Council members Kwame Brown (D-At-Large), Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4) and Barry (D-Ward 8).

Richard Maulsby, the club’s founding president and a longtime political supporter of Barry, told of how Barry emerged as one of the city’s earliest and strongest supporters of gay rights in the 1970s.
Maulsby noted that Barry, who served three terms as mayor before being elected as a Ward 8 Council member, has been credited with setting the tone for making Washington one of the nation’s most gay-supportive cities.

Among those calling for a Barry endorsement were Stein Club members and Ward 8 residents Phil Pannell and Brad Lewis.

Brown and Bowser said they, too, would vote for a same-sex marriage bill should it come before the Council.

Nine of the 10 rival candidates who attended the club’s endorsement meeting for the three Council seats also said they would vote for a same-sex marriage bill. Among them were Ward 8 challengers Darrel Gaston, Chanda McMahan, Charles Wilson and Yavocka Young. Ward 8 Council candidate Sandra Seegars, the controversial former member of the D.C. Taxicab Committee and one of Barry’s strongest opponents, did not attend the Stein meeting.

Clarence Cherry, one of two candidates challenging Brown for the at-large Council seat, was the only candidate attending the meeting to express opposition to same-sex marriage.
“I stand with the best interest of human beings,” Cherry said. “I believe marriage should be between a man and a woman.”

In response to pointed questions by Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance Vice President Rick Rosendall, Brown and Bowser said they support efforts to allow gay adult businesses displaced by the city’s new baseball stadium to reopen in new locations despite the fact that they voted against a bill aimed at easing restrictions against relocation efforts.

Brown and Bowser voted against a bill introduced by Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), who is gay, that provides a one-time exemption from certain liquor law restrictions for some of the gay and non-gay adult businesses displaced by the stadium. The bill passed after Graham accepted several amendments limiting the places where the displaced clubs could move and after he argued that the displaced clubs would be forced out of business if his bill did not pass. Only one of the displaced gay clubs, Ziegfeld’s-Secrets, has so far announced plans to reopen in a warehouse district in Ward 6.

Brown and Bowser said they voted against the bill because most of their constituents don’t want adult clubs, especially those offering nude dancing, in their neighborhoods, regardless of whether the clientele is gay or straight.

Rosendall noted that the Graham bill was limited in scope and would only allow two adult businesses to move into any single ward. He said that by voting against the bill, Brown and Bowser sought to deny the displaced clubs a chance to reopen anywhere in the city, including non-residential areas in other wards.

Stein Club member ...