City lawmakers voted this afternoon to legalize same-sex marriages, making the District of Columbia the fifth jurisdiction in the country to have its elected legislature pass such a measure.
"Today is the final step in a long march toward equality in the District of Columbia," said At-Large Councilmember Phil Mendelson, who shepherded the bill through the [...]

This morning’s roundup is dedicated to those barking underdogs: the tyrannized standing up to the tyranny, the teens throwing pumpkin pies at the teachers, and, um, the yogis fighting for freedom of speech? Three yoga teachers in Virginia are filing a lawsuit questioning the constitutionality of  imposing license requirements on teacher-training programs. They argue that [...]

The D.C. Council, in a long anticipated move, voted to legalize the performance of same-sex marriages in Washington. Only two members, Ward 7's Yvette Alexander and Ward 8's Marion Barry, voted against the measure, which continues now to a second and final vote next month.
At-Large Councilmember Phil Mendelson, who shepherded the bill though the council, [...]

Today, the D.C. Council sent a bill legalizing gay marriages in the District to the full council for a Dec. 1 vote. And during committee discussion today, there seemed to be little willingness to compromise on the ancillary issue of the day: whether the bill would cause the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington to withdraw from [...]

D.C. Wire just posted on this, but this document is just too good not to share more fully.
At-Large Councilmember David Catania today posted a letter to Robin Fretwell Wilson, law professor at Washington & Lee University, who has made it her job, as of late, to join the public debate in jurisdictions considering same-sex marriage, [...]

Today, the D.C. Archdiocese just handed Christopher Hitchens a chapter in his next anti-God book. The archdiocese continues to press for a more watered down version of the D.C. Council's gay-marriage bill. It's gone so far as to threaten to pull its Catholic Charities services from the District, WaPo is reporting:
Hours after the Committee on [...]

Today we introduce Hannah Neprash of districtlimerick.com, who will write regularly on D.C. news and politics—in limerick form.
Election week left some aghast
From last year, the difference was vast
A bell-weather? nope
Creigh Deeds had no hope
Before the first ballot was cast
The hearing for marriage rights raged
The witnesses—they got engaged
To make Council swoon
Could be a real boon
Who [...]

Of all the romantic locales in the world, or in the District of Columbia even, the John A. Wilson Building does not approach the top of LL's personal list.
But it was good enough today for D.C. residents Andrew Hertzberg and Andy Rollman.
During this morning's D.C. Council hearing on the same-sex marriage bill, Hertzberg, 49, proposed [...]

In testimony before the D.C. Council today, Bishop Harry Jackson namechecked Martin Luther King and his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" in talking about his opposition to gay marriage. Jackson quoted King: "A law is unjust if it is inflicted on a people, that, as a result of being denied the right to vote, have [...]

Only two holdouts left.
Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr. was a guest on NewsChannel 8's NewsTalk program this afternoon, and the gay marriage bill expected to pass through the council later this year was on the agenda. While he did not make a pledge on camera, anchor Bruce DePuyt reports that in a conversation afterward, [...]

In this week's column, LL spun a scenario whereby the D.C. Council might approve a same-sex-marriage referendum. That best-case hypothetical situation for gay-marriage opponents, LL wrote, would be if "Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr., on the hot seat with an election a year off, convinces Chairman Vincent C. Gray and at-largers Michael Brown and [...]

In his column this week, LL makes a case for why supporters of gay marriage in the District should embrace the idea of a ballot initiative. Right now, the orthodoxy among marriage equality advocates is that such matters of civil rights should never be put up for a vote. That's a principle that's hard to [...]

Tim Craig kinda buried the lede in his D.C. Wire report on the fresh effort to bring same-sex marriage to the ballot.
Yes, Bishop Harry Jackson and the usual suspects filed new papers to day to hold a vote on making "only marriage between a man and a woman...valid and recognized in the District of Columbia."
But [...]

If you're a same-sex couple married legally in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Iowa, California (in the months it was permitted), or in other countries, congratulations: The District of Columbia now considers you to be married, too.
At this minute, a 30-day congressional review period has expired, and you're now free to enjoy all the rights and responsibilities of [...]

The D.C. Council has passed a gay marriage recognition bill. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty has signed it. The Board of Elections and Ethics has rejected a referendum effort aimed at overturning it. A Superior Court judge has upheld that decision.
So, barring intervention from the D.C. Court of Appeals—and, according to a court spokesperson, no appeal [...]