DC’s Eleanor Holmes Norton chastises gay marriage foes who ask for Congress to interfere
“We knew this direction was a long shot… The answer now is for us, return to the political process. All is not lost at the Supreme Court level, in that there still will no doubt be a case from Massachusetts or California that will reach the Supreme Court and get some direction on the issue of marriage.”
Harry Jackson, an anti-gay preacher from Maryland who has been working for the last couple of years to block (and now overturn) lesbian and gay marriage rights. He was turned down yesterday by the US Supreme Court. (CNN)
Jackson has been working with a number of local and national groups including members of the National Organization for Marriage, Alliance Defense Fund, Family Research Council, several African-American baptist preachers and the head of Washington’s Catholic Archdiocese, Donald Wuerl.
He seeks to have the voters of Washington, DC weigh in through a public referendum. Jackson has been told numerous times and in numerous ways that such a ballot measure would violate the District of Columbia’s human rights ordinances, and that a referendum would be an extraordinary and unprecedented measure on such a civil rights matter. The legitimacy of Jackson’s District residency had been questioned in 2009, but he was allowed to continue filing complaints.
”No self-respecting resident of the District of Columbia would ever want to ask the Congress of the United States to overturn local laws, any more than any Baltimorean or Virginian would ask the Congress to overturn local law.”
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, Washington’s only (nonvoting) Congressional voice, calling out people like Harry Jackson and Brian Brown of the National Organization for Marriage who seek to overturn same-sex marriage in DC. (She has also refered to other issues like needle exchange and legalization of medical marijuana.) NOM’s Brown tells The Washington Post that he will ask Congress for assistance. (Washington Post)
Brown’s wish is no surprise, especially since social conservatives now control the House of Representatives. The new Republican majority gives them control of committees that oversee legal and financial matters that affect all DC residents.
It was feared that Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) would head the oversight committee. (He made anti-gay marriage moves in January and in November of last year.) But it was announced yesterday that freshman Trey Gowdy (R-SC) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ) will head the Subcomittee on Health Care, District of Columbia, Census and National Archives. (Washington Post)
The Washington Post also reports that Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO) will chair the Financial Services Subcommittee that oversees the District’s budget. (Washington Post)
The Christian Coalition of America lists Gosar as supporting a Federal Marriage Amendment to ban same-sex marriages. And, according to OnTheIssues, Emerson wanted a Constitutional Amendment to ban gay marriage. Gowdy’s marriage views do not seem to be as evident yet.
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