NOM loses it over DC marriage equality

Earlier this afternoon, the DC City Council voted 11 to 2 in favor of same-sex marriage, sending the bill to Mayor Adrian Fenty who has promised to sign it.

The media would have you believe this fight is over.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

As I told the press a few minutes ago:

“The people of D.C. have a right, guaranteed by the charter, which is D.C.'s constitution, to vote to protect marriage. Politicians on the city council are acting as if they have the right through legislation to deprive citizens of D.C. of their core civil right to vote, but we will not let them get away with it.”

“We have one message for David Catania and the rest of these politicians today: this fight is not over. We will go to Congress, we will go to the courts, we will fight for the people’s right to vote and we will win!”

Working closely with Stand4Marriage DC, we are committed to protecting the rights of DC voters who are being disenfranchised by their own government.

The arrogance shown by DC Councilmembers has been simply outrageous. Eleven of the Council's 13 members are determined to force same-sex marriage on the District, even if that means trampling the DC City Charter and depriving District residents of the right to vote.

Send your Congressman and Senators a message today! Tell them Congress can't stand by while the DC Council tramples the Charter and deprives its citizens of their core civil right to vote. Click here to send an email right now!

The DC Charter guarantees its citizens the right to put an initiative on the ballot for a District-wide vote, but earlier this month, the Board of Elections rejected a measure that would state: “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid and recognized in the District of Columbia.”

The proposed initiative simply restated current DC law on marriage. Still, the 2-member board found no difficulty ruling the initiative invalid as a violation of the Human Rights Act.

It's time for Congress to step up and restore the rule of law in the District of Columbia. If the DC Government is going to trample the rights of their citizens, Congress must intervene, invalidating the same-sex marriage bill unless or until the Council agrees to respect the rights of DC voters to bring an initiative petition.

Click here to send your Congressman and Senators a message right now! Congress has 30 days to intervene on behalf of DC voters. Tell your elected officials this abuse of authority by the DC Council has to stop now.

If Congress refuses to block the same-sex marriage bill, the DC Council will simply continue to ignore the rights of DC voters.

Congressional leadership would like nothing more than to have this issue go quietly away.

It's up to you and me to force Congress to deal with the issue! Send your message to Congress today!

And please forward this message to at least five friends right now. Send it all across the nation.

Every member of Congress needs to hear from his or her own constituents that this is an urgent civil rights violation taking place in the District of Columbia that requires Congressional attention!

Time is short. Please contact your elected officials right now.

Faithfully,

Brian S. Brown
Executive Director
National Organization for Marriage
20 Nassau Street, Suite 242
Princeton, NJ  08542
bbrown@nationformarriage.org

©2009 National Organization for Marriage.