My, what an interestingly busy day it's been.
By Nikita Stewart and Tim Craig
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, April 7, 2009; 12:45 PM
The D.C. Council voted today to recognize gay marriages performed in other states, on the same day that Vermont became the fourth state to legalize same-sex unions.
Domestic partnerships are already legal in the nation's capital, and gay couples married in other states are recognized as domestic partners when they move to the city. But today's legislation, billed as an important milestone in gay rights, explicitly recognizes them as married couples.
The initial vote was 12-0. The unanimous vote sets the stage for future debate on legalizing gay marriage in the District and a clash with Congress, which approves the city's laws under Home Rule. The council is expected to take a final vote on the legislation next month.
Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), who is gay, called the amendment a matter of "basic fairness." The city's laws on same-sex unions have been murky, he explained. Couples ask, he said, "Is my marriage valid in D.C.? For years now, it has not been clear. It's high time we send a clear, unequivocal message to those persons of the same sex and married in another jurisdiction that their marriage is valid in D.C.," said Graham, who added, "I hope this city recognizes this is a human rights struggle." [...]
Of course, the issue isn't whether or not the city recognizes this as a human rights struggle. The issue is, What Will Congress Do? And that's entirely up in the air. On the one hand, they allowed the District to legalize domestic partnership. On the other, marriage is legally quite a different thing; recognizing out-of-district marriages as marriage should logically bring DC into direct conflict with DOMA, even without passing a civil marriage act of their own. If Congress allows DC to recognize out-of-district marriages as such, it will be colluding in letting DOMA become a sort of dead letter law. And honestly, there are still enough Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats that I would be entirely unsurprised if Congress slapped DC down hard over this.
We shall see, won't we?
Posted by iain at April 07, 2009 12:36 PM
