In DC, Marion Barry of the 70's Trumps Marion Barry of 2009 - Gay Marriage Will Not Be Put to Vote

Yesterday the DC Board of Elections and Ethics rejected Bishop Harry Jackson's efforts to put recognition of same-sex marriages performed in other states to a referendum. The reason the referendum was rejected was because the proposed law would go against DC's comprehensive human rights law that says proposed laws that would have the purpose or effect of discriminating against people based on sexual orientation can't be passed by referendum. The GLAA, a local gay rights group, lobbied hard to get the language regarding sexual orientation placed in the law in the 70s, anticipating just this kind of situation. What needs to be understood here is this is the exact inverse of the situation in California--there the law was on the side of anti-marriage equality activists. Here, the letter of the law completely favors the marriage equality side. DC law strictly prohibits putting laws that are potentially discriminatory against certain groups to a popular vote, if the referendum had been allowed to go through, the law would have been meaningless. In an example of sublime historical irony, the BOEE noted in its ruling yesterday that it was Marion Barry, the only DC Council Member to vote against the recognition law, who placed the language in the original law regarding sexual orientation to say that the referendum process would never be used to "interfere with basic human and civil rights." Talk about a long game--the Marion Barry of 1978 defeated the Marion Barry of 2009. Full Story from The American Prospect

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