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Thursday, January 28th, 2010
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, introduced a bill Wednesday that seeks to overturn a new District of Columbia ordinance allowing gay marriage, but he predicts Democratic leaders will not allow it to come to a vote. “I think they are afraid they will lose,” he told the Deseret News.
“I wish it would come up for a vote, because I think traditional marriage would win. But with the Democrats controlling the House, the Senate and the presidency, I can’t imagine that this would make it through the process.” So, he said, the bill is “more symbolic than it is realistic.”
The district council last month passed, and its mayor signed, an ordinance to allow gay marriage. But because the nation’s capital is a federal district and not a state, all district ordinances must go through a waiting period of 30 days in session by Congress, during which Congress may vote to reject that ordinance.
Full Story from Deseret News
Click here for gay marriage resources in Washington, DC.
To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.
Posted in dc, district of columbia, Gay Marriage, intervene, jason chaffetz congress, marriage equality, republican, same sex marriage, washington | No Responses »
Friday, January 15th, 2010
A District of Columbia Superior Court Judge has dismissed a lawsuit aimed at putting marriage equality in the District of Columbia to a vote. In September, a group led by an Anti- Gay Maryland preacher, Bishop Harry Jackson, had asked the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics to approve a ballot measure establishing that “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in the District of Columbia.”
However, finding that that such a referendum would violate the D.C. Human Rights Act by discriminating against gays and lesbians, the board decided to deny that request and Jackson sued, arguing that the Human Rights Act could not be used to stop citizens from putting ballot initiatives to a vote. Earlier this month Yesterday Thirty-nine Republican legislators, including 37 members of the House and two senators, also filed an amicus brief to Jackson’s lawsuit and were supporting a public vote on the issue.
Yesterday, Judge Judith N. Macaluso ruled in favor of a District motion asking the suit be dropped and agreed with Board of Elections and Ethics decision, saying the board’s action were justified because the initiative would in effect authorize and “ostracize a disfavored minority in violation of District of Columbia law.”
Full Story from Lez Get Real
Click here for gay marriage resources in Washington, DC.
To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.
Posted in anti gay, dismissed, district of columbia, Gay Marriage, lawsuit, marriage equality, same sex marriage, washington dc | No Responses »
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010
Many have been counting down 30 days from the day that Mayor Fenty signed the DC gay marriage bill until Congress could no longer invalidate it Guess what? The countdown really started yesterday, January 11, 2009.
According to the Washington Post, Del. Eleanor Norton announced yesterday that the countdown to legalized same-sex marriage in the District of Columbia began the same day. With everyone paying attention to the Prop 8 trials, I am wondering how many will pick this up.
The good news is that Del. Norton said that she has done her homework, and that the “initial work to close the gates on overturning” the bill has been done. Regarding the bill itself, she said “this bill should not be on the Hill at all. Home rule is all or it is nothing. We can’t pick and choose when it intervene.”
Full Story from GayVantage: http://www.gayvantage.com/gay-agenda/gay-marriage/real-countdown-to-dc-gay-marriage-really-started-yesterday-8573201113/
Click here for gay marriage resources in Washington, DC.
To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.
Posted in congress, dc, district of columbia, Gay Marriage, intervene, marriage equality, same sex marriage, washington | No Responses »
Saturday, December 26th, 2009
Bob King is a longtime Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner (ANC) from Ward 5 in Washington, DC. He is also a proponent of letting the DC gay marriage issue go to popular vote. Upset that the DC Board of Elections and Ethics ruled twice that the majority cannot vote on the rights of the minority, Bob King sent a letter earlier this month to all 535 members of Congress asking that they force the DC gay marriage issue to popular vote.
With the letter he attached a one-page list of bullet points outlining why DC residents should be allowed to vote on gay marriage. His basic argument was that with 416,657 registered voters in Washington, DC, the issue of gay marriage should not be left up to 13 city council members. He feels as though DC (which is not a state and has no voting power in Congress) should have the same rights as the 31 states that have voted to define marriage.
Mr. King also feels that many residents are not be fairly represented. ”Three Advisory Neighborhood Commissions have adopted joint resolutions, and over 50 individual ANC Commissioners have already signed on to the People’s Resolution calling for a citizens’ initiative on the definition of marriage in D.C. This represents over 100,000 District residents.”
Full Story from Gay Vantage: http://www.gayvantage.com/uncategorized/will-bob-king-kill-gay-marriage-in-dc-48472011/
Click here for gay marriage resources in Washington, DC.
To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.
Posted in bob king, congress, dc, district of columbia, Gay Marriage, public vote, washington dc | No Responses »
Saturday, December 26th, 2009
First we learned that the newly passed DC gay marriage law is under attack by Congressman Jason Caffetz. Earlier today we learned about Bob King, who petitioned Congress to allow the issue to go to popular vote.
Now we’re hearing that Stand for Marriage DC, a group that opposes same-sex marriage in the nation’s capital has bought ads from the DC metro system.
In response, another group, Full Equality Now DC, has demanded the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) remove the ads from metro buses. The group feels that it disrespects and discriminates against the LGBT community, an issue of indecency and in direct violation of WMATA’s own policy against discrimination.
Full Story from Gay Vantage: http://www.gayvantage.com/gay-news/anti-gay-marriage-ads-pop-up-on-dc-metro-7562617100/
Click here for gay marriage resources in Washington, DC.
To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.
Posted in ads, anti gay, dc, district of columbia, Gay Marriage, marriage equality, metro, subway, washington dc | No Responses »
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009
On a beautiful Saturday afternoon a couple of years ago, we took our places in front of the altar at Covenant Baptist Church, just as we had countless times before in our more than 20 years as partners in ministry. We had been united in holy matrimony ourselves in the same spot where we now stood to unite others.
As the couple walked down the aisle, we recalled the previous evening’s rehearsal, when we commended all the participants for their courage and prayed that God would be in our midst at the ceremony. When we pronounced the couple “partners for life,” we felt our prayers had been answered. It was the same feeling we had experienced so many times before when asking for God’s blessing of the union of a man and a woman. Only this time, the union was of a man and a man.
Our church is the first and only traditional black church in the District of Columbia to perform same-sex unions. We conducted our first two union ceremonies, one gay and one lesbian, in the summer of 2007. The rapid political developments that followed in our nation and our city have made us optimistic that by the summer of 2010, same-sex nuptials will be not only blessed by churches but also sanctioned by law in the District.
Full Story from Delaware Online: http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20091223/OPINION16/91222023/1004/OPINION/-Gay-marriage-in-our-black-church
Click here for gay marriage resources in Washington, DC.
To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.
Posted in anti gay marriage, Covenant Baptist Church, district of columbia, gay marriage washington dc, marriage equality | No Responses »
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009
Although gay marriage will soon be taking place in Washington DC (so long as Congress does not block it, which they are not expected to do), opponents of same-sex marriage have filed suit against the District of Columbia over the DC Board of Elections and Ethics decision to not let gay marriage become a ballot issue.
One the same day that Mayor Fenty was signing the new gay marriage law, the District filed a motion (found below) to have the lawsuit dismissed.
In the 46-page motion, lawyers for the District argue that the DC Board of Elections and Ethics was correct in rejecting the ballot measure in that it violated the DC Human Rights Act by discriminating against GLBT people. The DC Code does not permit initiatives that “authorize discrimination.”
Full Story from Gay Vantage: http://www.gayvantage.com/gay-news/dc-gay-marriage-lawsuit-2484010018/
Click here for gay marriage resources in Washington, DC.
To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.
Posted in dismissal, district of columbia, Gay Marriage, lawsuit, washington dc | No Responses »
Sunday, December 20th, 2009
Robin Sutliff’s flower shop is redolent with the ingredients of a perfect wedding place setting: tall stands of white amaryllis, cala lilies imported from South America, summery clusters of yellow-orange orchids. When she imagines the many same-sex couples likely to tie the knot in the District this spring, though, her mind settles on the humble hyacinth. “It’s a pretty flower,” said Sutliff, owner of Ultra Violet florist in Georgetown. “It smells good, and it’s strong. It represents spring and new birth.”
On Friday, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) signed legislation to legalize same-sex marriage in the District, a move that is expected to be a financial boon for the city and for vendors such as Sutliff, who make much of their money on weddings but who have struggled during the recession. District officials surmise that the regional economy could reap up to $22 million over the next three years as couples from Washington and elsewhere take advantage of the new law, and the Williams Institute, a think tank at the University of California at Los Angeles, estimates that the infusion could be $52 million.
But the betrothed are not lining up quite yet. The law is subject to a 30-day review period by Congress, and opponents have taken their objections to court. Although many expect the bill to pass unhindered this spring, couples say the memory of California’s Proposition 8 remains fresh in their minds. The 2008 voter-approved initiative banned same-sex marriage in the state after it had been legalized, a setback to many hopeful couples and a stunning reversal to those who thought gay marriage was on the path to mainstream acceptance.
Full Story from the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/19/AR2009121902234.html?wprss=rss_metro
Click here for gay marriage resources in Washington, DC.
To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.
Posted in dc, district of columbia, economic windfall, Gay Marriage, marriage equality, same sex marriage, vendors, washington dc | No Responses »
Friday, December 18th, 2009
The nation’s capital city is expected a major step Friday towards legalizing same-sex marriage. District of Columbia Mayor Adrian Fenty is scheduled to sign a measure that would recognize gay marriages as legal. The city council overwhelming passed the bill on Tuesday, following a similar vote on December 1.
According to Fenty’s schedule, posted on-line, the mayor will perform the signing at All Souls Church, a Unitarian house of worship in the northwest part of the District that is known for its diversity and for the welcoming of same-sex couples.
Following the mayor’s signing of the legislation, the measure goes to Congress for a 30-day review period, but it’s considered unlikely that the Democratic majority on Capitol Hill will block the bill. By law, Congress has the right to review and overturn laws created by the District’s city council. If the measure becomes law, the District would join Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont and Iowa in allowing legal same-sex marriages. A law legalizing gay marriage in New Hampshire takes affect on January 1.
Full Story from CNN: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/12/18/dc-mayor-to-sign-same-sex-marriage-bill/
Click here for gay marriage resources in Washington, DC.
To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.
Posted in district of columbia, Gay Marriage, marriage equality, mayor adrian fenty, sign, washington dc | No Responses »
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
Utah Representative Jason Chaffetz has vowed to lead an effort in Congress to block a gay marriage bill approved in the District of Columbia Tuesday. With an 11 to 2 vote, lawmakers approved the gay marriage bill, which is expected to be signed by Mayor Adrian Fenty before Christmas. Under Home Rule, Congress has final say on laws approved in the District.
Chaffetz, a freshman representative, told the Salt Lake Tribune that he’ll introduce a resolution in January.
“It’s going to be exceptionally difficult because Democrats have us outnumbered by large amounts,” he said. “Nevertheless, we’re going to try.”
Full Story from On Top Magazine: http://ontopmag.com/article.aspx?id=5009&MediaType=1&Category=26
Click here for gay marriage resources in Washington, DC.
To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.
Posted in congressman, district of columbia, Gay Marriage, jason chaffetz, republican, Tuesday, utah, vote, washington dc | No Responses »
