Jun 05, 2009  |  By: Lou Chibbaro Jr.  | COMMENTS     

The pastor of a Maryland church who’s seeking a voter referendum in D.C. to overturn a city law recognizing same-sex marriages from other jurisdictions did not become a registered voter in the city until April 22, according to voter registration records.

Rev. Harry Jackson Jr., pastor of Christian Hope Church in Beltsville, Md., and the lead proponent of the marriage referendum, lists his D.C. residence on the city’s voter registration rolls as an apartment in the upscale Whitman Condominium at 910 M St., N.W.

The city’s election law requires that persons proposing a voter referendum be a District resident and a registered D.C. voter. People participating in the signature gathering process to place a referendum on the ballot must also be District residents and duly registered voters.

The D.C. Board of Elections & Ethics has set a June 10 hearing to hear testimony on whether a measure calling for overturning the same-sex marriage law is a proper subject for a city referendum.

Supporters of the same-sex marriage recognition bill, which was approved by the D.C. Council and signed by Mayor Adrian Fenty last month, said they will argue before the board that a request for such a referendum should be denied because it would violate the city’s Human Rights Act. The act, among other things, bans discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender.

Under the city’s law governing referenda, the board must determine whether the marriage measure is a proper subject for a referendum before supporters of the measure can begin gathering about 21,000 petition signatures needed to place it on the ballot.

The signatures must be obtained and validated by the election board before Congress completes its required 30 legislative day review of the same-sex marriage law. The congressional review period began May 7, the day after Fenty signed the bill, and city officials say the review is expected to be completed by July 6.

If Congress doesn’t vote to overturn the bill, it automatically becomes law on the day the congressional review period ends. The city’s referendum law says that a referendum cannot be called if the signature gathering process and other legal hurdles are not completed prior to the conclusion of the congressional review.

Jackson has said he expects to have hundreds of volunteers joining his effort to gather signatures for the referendum petitions if the election board approves the same-sex marriage issue as a proper subject for a referendum.

In a separate filing required under the referendum law, Jackson filed papers with the D.C. Office of Campaign Finance to register the campaign committee he created to advance the referendum: Stand4MarriageDC.

The finance papers identify Jackson as chair of the committee and list Brian Brown as the committee treasurer. The papers show that Jackson and Chuck Donovan, who is identified in the papers as an “executive” with the anti-gay Family Research Council in Manassas, Va., as each having contributed $50 to the Stand4MarriageDC committee, representing the first two contributions received.

“Again, what we’re seeing is it’s outsiders who are coming in and meddling in the District’s business,” said Michael Crawford, president of D.C. For Marriage, an advocacy group supporting same-sex marriage.

“It’s not something we didn’t expect,” he said. “We think the majority of city residents will support marriage equality. And I think what’s happening is that Harry Jackson and others from outside of the District are going to raise money from outside of the District to try to influence voters.”

Jackson did not return calls seeking comment on the matter or when he became a city resident. An official with the Whitman Condominium couldn’t be immediately reached to determine whether Jackson owns or rents his apartment in the building.

Six other city residents signed on as co-introducers of the proposed referendum to overturn the same-sex marriage law. They include Rev. Walter Fauntroy, the city’s former delegate to Congress; Rev. Dale Wafer; Melvin Dupree; Sandra Harris; Patricia Johnson; and Bobby Perkins Jr.

Johnson is associate dean for the Washington, D.C. campus of Nyack College, which bills itself as a Christian liberal arts college based in Nyack, N.Y. Harris is a real estate agent with the Cosmopolitan Properties real estate brokerage firm. Perkins serves as pastor for World Missions for Christ Church in the city’s Shaw neighborhood.

Pro-gay clergy unite

As the D.C. Board of Elections & Ethics prepared to consider the referendum request, more than 130 clergy representing dozens of churches and at least two synagogues in D.C. released a joint statement Tuesday expressing support for same-sex marriage.

“We declare that ...