D.C. Gay Marriage Referendum Rejected by Elections Board

[FreeState]

Yes! great news...

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2009/06/15/dc-gay-marriage-referendum-rejected-by-elections-board/

The Board of Elections and Ethics has ruled that a referendum on recognizing gay marriages is not allowed.

Reads the order , signed by both board chair Errol Arthur and member Charles Lowery Jr.:

(I)t is clear that the Referendum’s Proposers would, in contravention of the , strip same-sex couples of the rights and responsibilities of marriage that they were afforded by virtue of entering into valid marriages elsewhere, and that the Council intends to clearly make available to them here in the District, simply on the basis of their sexual orientation. Because the Referendum would authorize discrimination prohibited by the , it is not a proper subject for referendum, and may not be accepted by the Board.

UPDATE, 4:50 P.M.: The order highlights this section of the Human Rights Act: “it shall be an unlawful discriminatory practice for a District government agency or office to limit or refuse to provide any facility, service, program, or benefit to any individual on the basis of an individual’s actual or perceived…sexual orientation.”

In a twist of the knife, the order notes that when the referendum and initiative laws were introduced to the council in 1978, it was Councilmember Marion Barry who added the amendment barring laws concerning human-rights matters. Barry, of course, was the only vote against the gay marriage recognition law last month.

[GodlessBiker]

1. A very nice twist of the knife. Screw you, Barry.

[QC]

2. You know, after I have watched a man smoke crack with a hooker,

it's kinda hard for me to take him seriously as a defender of traditional morality.

[Pacifist Patriot]

3. Funny how that works, isn't it?

[QC]

4. Yeah. But there is no one so morally squalid that he can't pull rank on the homos.

Funny how that works, too.

[NMMNG]

5. But it was a straight hooker

That makes it OK, you know. :eyes:

[QC]

6. That is true. Their crack-smoking was intended as a prelude

to some good old-fashioned penis/vagina intercourse, and that makes it holy.

In fact, I bet the angels in heaven were singing when Marion and his hooker did their thing.