DC Comes Through

Yay, DC!

The DC Council came through and passed on the second reading the bill to legalize same-sex marriage in the District.

(As Councilman Mendelson says, this bill removes restrictions on the practice of religion, as over 200 churches in the District want to solemnize gay marriages and couldn't before this, while no church that doesn't want to will be forced to. And he added that they talked with the Catholic Church; he said there was no language the Catholics would accept, yet Catholic charities in states with same-sex marriage "continue to function".

(Councilman Thomas points out that his ward didn't (doesn't) support this bill, but he believes that "all people, regardless of where they stand in God's universe, deserve equal rights". He voted his conscience, not the fears of his constituents. "We must teach our community that we must not have intolerance. ... The law should be blind, the law should be fair, the law should be equitable.")

(But Marion Barry is wrong when he says that "you judge a football game by the four quarters, or a baseball game by the nine innings". You judge 'em by the final score. If you have three brilliant quarters and one bad one - and that bad one makes you lose the game - no one remembers the brilliance. Still, I suppose Barry isn't as bad as many; he has indeed voted for GLBT rights time and again; he's just a religious bigot who can't understand that his "right to disagree", his "right to dissent from this vote", doesn't change the fact that he voted against civil rights this time.)