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| Protestors gathered in Freedom Plaza Sunday to rally against a pending same-sex marriage bill in the District. (Blade photo by Michael Key) | |
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By LOU CHIBBARO JR, Washington Blade
Oct 26 2009, 10:03 AM |
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Scores
of people cheered and waved signs as ministers and religious activists
delivered speeches Sunday during a Freedom Plaza rally against same-sex
marriage in the District of Columbia.
Chanting
“let the people vote,” Bishop Harry Jackson, pastor of a church in Beltsville,
Md., and Rev. Walter Fauntroy, Washington’s former congressional delegate, were
among a series of speakers to call on the D.C. City Council to allow a voter
initiative that seeks to ban same-sex marriage in the city.
Jackson,
who is leading the fight against a same-sex marriage bill introduced by gay
Council member David Catania, announced at the rally that he would begin Monday
a 21-day fast to help build support for a ballot initiative on marriage.
“It’s
about the next generation. It’s about marriage and the family,” he said. “This
is definitely not a civil rights issue.”
There
was no official attendance estimate for the rally, but the Washington Post
reported that about 150 people attended.
The
rally took place one day before more than 100 witnesses were expected to
testify for and against Catania’s marriage bill during a City Council hearing
set for 3:30 p.m. Monday. About 270 people have signed up to testify on the
bill, and Council member Phil Mendelson, who chairs the committee that will
hold the hearing, has set a second session for the hearing Nov. 2.
More than one dozen witnesses also were expected to testify before a separate
hearing Monday morning at the D.C. Board of Elections & Ethics offices over
whether the city’s election law allows a same-sex marriage initiative to be
placed on the ballot in 2010.
The board ruled earlier this year that a ballot measure seeking to overturn a city
law recognizing same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions — which the
Council passed in May — could not be placed on the ballot because it would
violate the city’s Human Rights Act.
Jackson and other speakers at Sunday’s rally stressed they didn’t want to strike laws
that make it illegal to discriminate against gays in housing or employment
matters. But the ministers and other speakers insisted that same-sex marriage
is a religious rather than civil rights issue.
“Everyone is entitled to basic civil rights,” Fauntroy told the crowd. He joined other
ministers speaking across the street from the John Wilson City Hall Building in
saying same-sex marriage would irrevocably endanger families by redefining
marriage against the will of God.
“I am opposed to it because I want to see the perpetuation of the species,” he
said. “God told us to go out and multiply.”
A review of the rally’s crowd indicated that about 95 percent of the people were
black. Several of the speakers said whites, Latinos and members of other ethnic
groups were among those strongly opposed to same-sex marriage.
Rev. Anthony Evans, president of the National Black Church Initiative, said he other
same-sex marriage opponents would actively work for the defeat of all City
Council members who vote for Catania’s marriage bill. Nine of the Council’s 13
members signed on with Catania as co-introducers of the bill, making it nearly
certain that the bill will pass.
Mayor Adrian Fenty has said he will sign the bill. Once he does so, it goes to
Congress, where it must undergo a 30 legislative day review. Gay rights
supporters in Congress have said they believe they have the votes, with the
backing of House and Senate Democratic leaders, to defeat any attempt to overturn
a D.C. same-sex marriage law.
Evans told the rally about a meeting that he and about two dozen ministers had Oct.
22 with D.C. Council Chair Vincent Gray.
In a statement released to the Blade, Evans recounted that Gray told the ministers
that “no matter what the church says he was going to push for the passage of
the same-sex marriage law.”
“We then asked him what about your soul,” Evans said in the statement. “He boldly
told us this matter does not have anything to do with my soul. We were astonished
to hear the chairman of the City Council not only willing to ignore God’s word
but was determined to defy the teachings of Christ concerning marriage and defy
God by declaring same-sex marriage as not a religious issue but a human rights
one.”
Gray spokesperson Dixie McCoy, who attended Gray’s meeting with the ministers,
disputed Evans’ assertion that Gray acted in an arrogant way or challenged
their religious beliefs.
“Gray
welcomed the opportunity to meet with the ministers, listen to their concerns,
and remind them of his long-standing opposition to discrimination of any kind
and support of the human rights for all District of Columbia residents,” McCoy
said.
“Without
exhibiting any arrogance or condemning the ministers and their religious stance,
the chairman said he does not believe he was risking his soul by supporting a
matter of human rights,” she said.
Gray has joined Catania and the other Council members supporting the same-sex
marriage bill in noting that it would legalize same-sex civil marriage without
forcing churches or ministers to perform such unions if doing so would go
against their religious beliefs.
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