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Foes Lose Ballot Initiative Battle in D.C.


WASHINGTON DC MARRIAGE RINGS x390 (fair use) | Advocate.com

A Washington, D.C., judge ruled in favor of the city's Board of Elections and Ethics, which said it would not allow a ballot initiative on same-sex marriage.

The case was brought forth by a group of religious conservatives and 39 Congress members looking to reverse the D.C. city council's vote to legalize gay marriage in December.

The board's ruling that the initiative would violate the D.C. Human Rights Act was valid, Judge Judith Macaluso wrote in a decision released Thursday. Under D.C. law, ballot initiatives cannot authorize discrimination. The antigay petitioners argued that the district's 1979 human rights protections were, however, invalid.

“D.C. has the right to govern itself and make its own laws without the interference of thirty-nine Republican members of Congress, more interested in scoring cheap political points than in the everyday lives of D.C. residents," Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese said in a statement. "As D.C. law justifiably recognizes, no initiative should be permitted to strip away any individual’s civil rights. It is heartening that two different judges upheld the anti-discrimination protections wisely enacted by the Council more than 30 years ago."

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Reader Comments
  • Name: Randy
    Date posted: 1/16/2010 12:06:11 AM
    Hometown: West Hollywood

    Comment:

    We’ll take it wherever we can get it and count our blessings. Don’t forget to show extra effort to the people who stand with us. As they are pressured by our opponents we must give them support and confidence. Separately, each gain seems small but each is actually something and more. The boat is rocking. We need to replace moderates and reasonable citizen’s fears with rich, wholesome images that in a way don’t make us very different from them. They need to know more about us and there’s power in images. Part of California’s challenge was that we didn’t have a face or successfully address fears tactics and in the end I think that didn’t help. But our image must be more inclusive of who we are.

  • Name: Scott
    Date posted: 1/14/2010 7:16:25 PM
    Hometown: Portland

    Comment:

    That is how it should be handled everywhere. No institution or group of people should ever be allowed to vote to remove rights away from others making them secondary citizens.

  • Name: Ray Fleming
    Date posted: 1/14/2010 7:01:22 PM
    Hometown: Jackson, MS

    Comment:

    “D.C. has the right to govern itself and make its own laws without the interference of thirty-nine Republican members of Congress, more interested in scoring cheap political points than in the everyday lives of D.C. residents," Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese ----------------------------------- Umm is there actually someone at HRC with a pair?

  • Name: Ginelle
    Date posted: 1/14/2010 5:18:29 PM
    Hometown: British Columbia, Canada

    Comment:

    Don't you just want to love it when we WIN? And especially so when our losses for so long have been against such hateful bigots and now when the tables turn it gives them an opportunity to see what it feels like. Yahoo Washington, D.C.!

  • Name: Jay
    Date posted: 1/14/2010 5:18:25 PM
    Hometown: Santa Monica

    Comment:

    Mark, you give Maggie too much credit. She doesn't care about this; she's in it for the money. And it has proved pretty lucrative for her. I'd say, she's just a whore, but that would be insulting to people who are way more honorable than she is. But you know she'd be campaigning for us if we paid her enough money.

  • Name: gisele
    Date posted: 1/14/2010 4:53:00 PM
    Hometown: new York

    Comment:

    This kinda lighten my spirit up, and give me a hope. Take that Maggie Galagher !!

  • Name: Mark
    Date posted: 1/14/2010 4:50:17 PM
    Hometown: Santa Fe

    Comment:

    I LOVE IT! Tell me, Maggies 'loser' Gallagher - how does it feel to you now losing something you feel so passionately about? It's not fun is it? Now you might have an inkling how we in the gay community have been feeling of late. Though of course you can't truly understand as this is not about you not having all your own civil rights, now is it?

  • Name: Debra
    Date posted: 1/14/2010 4:43:12 PM
    Hometown: Sacramento

    Comment:

    Finally, a step in the correct (wont say "right") direction. Many kudos to the Judge and the denizens of D.C.

  • Name: Kevin
    Date posted: 1/14/2010 4:35:43 PM
    Hometown: Ft. Myers

    Comment:

    HA.

  • Name: Tokkar
    Date posted: 1/14/2010 4:11:54 PM
    Hometown: Orgrimmar

    Comment:

    YYYEEESSS!!!!!!! That's just effing awesome! Love it!



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