Countrify

Washington, D.C. Makes Gay Marriage History

by Michael A. Jones 

 

Washington, D.C. is about to make gay marriage history. After months of trepidation over whether a bill passed by the City Council, the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009, would go into effect, this morning same-sex couples were allowed to line up and apply for marriage licenses. Those that pick up the licenses today will be allowed to get married after a mandatory short waiting period.

Meaning that if all goes according to plan, gay and lesbian couples will be officially tying the knot in the nation's capital on Tuesday, March 9. And D.C. will become the sixth location in the U.S. where gay and lesbian couples are afforded equal marriage rights.

Opponents of gay marriage are still trying to pull off last minute shenanigans to stop gay and lesbian couples from getting married in Washington, D.C. They've taken their case to boards of elections, to district courts, and even to the U.S. Supreme Court. They've had no luck everywhere they go. The Human Rights Campaign calls this exactly what it is -- "Bizarre Legal Straw Grasping."

"Virtually no part of the judicial branch has been left unscathed in the past 24 hours as opponents of marriage equality have launched a desperate eleventh hour attempt to find a sympathetic court to halt D.C.’s same-sex marriage law," HRC's Assistant General Counsel Darrin Hurwitz writes.

What a shame that anti-gay forces haven't found some "activist judges," if you will, to help their case. As a result, folks who love each other will now be getting hitched. It's always nice to see love and equality trump bigotry and legal wrangling for the sake of taking away rights.

Already this morning, more than 60 same-sex couples have lined up to apply for marriage licenses. Later this morning, D.C. City Council Member David Catania, the city council member who introduced the marriage equality bill, will be handing out boxes of cupcakes to couples who apply to get married. Cupcakes = good. Gay marriage = good. March 3 = history in the making.

To see why this law really matters -- and why the fight for marriage equality is so important across every state -- just look to the couples applying to get married. One of them, Sinjoyla Townsend and Angelisa Young, told reporters and bloggers that they've been waiting for this day for a really long time.

"It's like waking up Christmas morning," Young said. The two were the first couple to apply for a marriage license this morning, getting in line at the courthouse at 6:00am.

Meanwhile, Evan Wolfson at Freedom to Marry put the ultimate punctuation mark on the importance of today's marriage equality victory in Washington, D.C.

"The issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples in America's capital marks a significant victory for the national movement to secure the freedom to marry, and a great joy for D.C. couples who no longer need to leave home to secure the protections and responsibilities of marriage for their families," Wolfson said. "As our nation's lawmakers mingle with committed couples living more securely than before and witness first-hand that the sky does not fall, it will be evident that there is no good reason for denying gay couples the freedom to marry, and every reason to end the federal discrimination against married couples inflicted through the so-called 'Defense of Marriage Act.'"

Seriously. The first thing that's so good about D.C.'s gay marriage law is that it allows same-sex couples the same marriage rights that straight people get. The second thing that's so good? Having gay marriage so close to lawmakers in the District might just open up hearts and minds for legislators in the red, purple and blue states where, to this date, gay marriage remains against the law.