U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said gay marriage isn't on the Congressional radar anytime soon; she said votes on marriage won't come until after Congress votes on ENDA and hate crimes.
But the gay civil-rights movement is not so easily kept under control; recent developments in the District of Columbia portend a vote in Congress on marriage could come first and soon. And a dramatic move of New York Gov. David Paterson last week—coupled with an imminent vote by the New Hampshire Senate, a critical public hearing in Maine and a pending California Supreme Court ruling—promises to keep the fight for equal rights in marriage at the top of most LGBT agendas this year.
Pelosi's assessment came in response to a question from the San Francisco gay newspaper Bay Area Reporter ( BAR ) on April 15, while she was touring a local AIDS service group in her home district. She told the paper that repealing the Defense of Marriage Act ( DOMA ) is not a priority right now.
"The speaker said that her two legislative priorities for the LGBT community are passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and the federal hate crimes bill," reported BAR. "She indicated action on those items would occur before any effort to repeal DOMA … ."
Certainly, no one's pushing to bring repeal of DOMA to Congress any time soon. President Obama, who supports repeal of DOMA, has made clear that, right now, he's focusing on the fixing the economy, resolving the wars, and improving health care and education. On the very few occasions anyone has asked the White House about recent developments on gay marriage—around news in Iowa, Vermont and D.C.—spokespersons have simply brushed off the questions. For instance, when asked during a routine daily press briefing April 9 about the D.C. government's approval of a bill to simply recognize out-of-state same-sex marriages, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said only: "I'll let the city council worry about that."
Always a wild card
The D.C. City Council isn't worried about that. It approved the measure unanimously on April 7 and has scheduled its second and final vote for May 5. Then, the bill goes to Congress—because the District of Columbia is a federal jurisdiction, not a state, and its laws are subject to approval or rejection by Congress.
D.C. Councilman David Catania, who is openly gay and one of the key supporters of the Marriage Recognition measure, said he's optimistic about the bill's chances of fending off any effort in Congress to overturn the law. So, too, said D.C.'s one Congressional representative in Congress, Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton.
In a statement released April 8, Norton said, "Gay couples, no less than others, must be entitled to the protection of their marriages sanctioned in other states, especially in today's mobile society."
"Particularly considering that many gay couples are also parents, every effort must be made to protect these families and their children as they move among our states," she said. "I will make every effort to protect the District's self-governing authority to make this and other decisions for its residents."
It certainly helps the bill's chances that Democrats are in the majority in both the House and Senate, and that both the House and the Senate would have to vote for repeal in order to kill the measure. But the Democrats held majorities in 1992, when Congress voted to block the District from spending any money to implement a domestic partner registry for same-sex couples. ( That block was later rescinded in 2002, when Republicans ruled Congress. ) So there are no guarantees on how a vote might turn out.
But the district is under particularly intense scrutiny right now. It is trying to gain approval for a "D.C. voting rights" bill that would enable its delegate in Congress to become a full-fledged voting representative. And it is having to fend off a Republican-sponsored amendment to that bill that seeks to undermine the city's restrictions on gun ownership. If there's support for a gun amendment, there's almost certainly support for an anti-gay amendment.
Gay-marriage supporters are helped by procedural changes made in the 1980s, said David Smith, who oversees the Human Rights Campaign's efforts on federal legislative goals.
"There was a time long ago," said Smith, "when the D.C. appropriations process [ in Congress ] was the target of right-wing Republicans trying to push their ideological agenda." But there's been a shift away from that, said Smith, and greater respect is given for the right of the District of Columbia government to exercise home rule.
"But at the end of the day," said Smith, "we just don't know." Smith said HRC is prepared to defend the D.C. Marriage Recognition bill if it is attacked.
Once the District Council votes May 5, Congress has 30 in-session days to act. If there's going to be a vote to undo that bill, it will likely come sometime in June.
Ever the Empire
Paterson has made it clear that he's unafraid of opposition. He instructed state officials in May of last year to give "full faith and credit" to same-sex marriages legally performed in other jurisdictions. This month, he went one better: He introduced a bill April 16 to allow gay couples to obtain marriage licenses the same as straight couples. Despite expected opposition in the legislature, Paterson announced his action with a high-profile news conference, attended and supported by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. And even though some Black civil-rights leaders have rebuffed any comparisons of the gay civil-rights movement to that of Blacks, Paterson, an African-American, said, "For too long, LGBT New Yorkers have been told to wait for their civil rights and personal freedom," said Paterson. "We will not wait any longer. Now is the time for action. Now is the time for leadership. Now is the time to march forward together."
Meanwhile, marriage efforts are marching on:
—The New Hampshire Senate could vote as soon as April 22 on a same-sex marriage bill there. The bill passed the House in a dramatic reconsideration vote last month. The Democratic governor has said he opposes same-sex marriage but has not indicated how he would respond should the bill pass the legislature;
—Maine will hold its first public hearing on a same-sex marriage bill April 22. Thousands of people on both sides of the issue are expected to show up for a scheduled 11-hour hearing at the Augusta Civic Center.
—The Iowa Supreme Court ruling that the state constitution's guarantee of equal protection requires that same-sex marriage licenses be granted to same-sex couples, too, goes into effect Monday, April 27. In response to reports that some county officials were planning to refuse to issue licenses to gay couples, the state Department of Public Health issued an e-mail to recorders saying that officials are "required to comply" with the supreme court decision. The Des Moines Register reported that Republicans in the State Senate are pushing a measure to exempt officials who claim they have a religious objection to homosexuality. There's also reportedly active lobbying to push for a constitutional amendment.
