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 no part in enacting or devising the law."

That, of course, was a reference to Jackson's quest to have a citywide vote on gay marriage. He said, "I believe the people of the District of Columbia have suffered an injustice by being ignored already, and you're about to do that again....There is an advisory referendum that you could endorse---why don't you do it?"

At-Large Councilmember David A. Catania, author and lead introducer of the bill, was ready to pounce.

Read More "David Catania Gives Harry Jackson a History Lesson" »

Big showdown in D.C. Superior Court over gay marriage this afternoon!

Here's what's going on: Opponents of the gay-marriage-recognition law passed this spring by the D.C. Council are asking Judge Judith Retchin to step in and stop the law from taking effect. That'd be a bare assertion of power by the judge---and Retchin acknowledged as much: "I question whether the court has the authority to stay the effective date."

That date is July 6, marking the end of the 60-day 30-day period during which the U.S. Congress reviews the marriage-recognition measure. It's a quirk of D.C.'s serfdom that Congress gets this approval window, and it's a quirk that's being exploited by the anti-gay marriage lobby.

Read More "Gay-Marriage Opponents Ask Judge to Stop the Clock" »

Gay-marriage referendum backers have asked a Superior Court judge this morning to order the city elections board to allow a ballot measure.

The move comes two days after the Board of Elections and Ethics ruled that such a referendum, to overturn a recently passed District law recognizing out-of-state gay marriages, would violate the D.C. Human Right Act and thus would be ineligible to appear on the ballot.

The petition [PDF], filed by Bishop Harry Jackson and six other backers, says the BOEE decision "is erroneous because the determination directly contradicts the D.C. Court of Appeals' decision in Dean...holding that the current D.C. law limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples does not violate the DC-HRA."

Read More "D.C. Gay Marriage Referendum Supporters Petition Court" »

Bishop Harry Jackson, leading opponent of gay marriage in the District, entered the No-Spin Zone this evening.

Jackson was featured in a five-minute segment midway through the O'Reilly Factor, as proof, according to host Bill O'Reilly, of "the staggering hypocrisy of the left and media that enables the far left to do these things."

Some backstory: On June 5, Lou Chibbaro Jr. reported in the Washington Blade that Jackson had only recently registered to vote in the District and that he listed his residence as a one-bedroom apartment in the Whitman, a Mount Vernon Square condo building. That, of course, is germane because he is (a) a proponent of a referendum on a District law and (b) required to be a registered District voter to do so. Earlier this week, Chibbaro added to his report, reporting that virtually no one at the condo building had seen Jackson and that Jackson is maintaining his residences in Maryland.

On Wednesday, at a hearing before the Board of Elections and Ethics, Jackson took time to decry the disclosures, calling them a threat to him and his family and an attempt to intimidate him and other same-sex marriage opponents.

On O'Reilly, he continued his protestations.

Read More "Bishop Harry Jackson to Bill O’Reilly: ‘They Hacked Into My Records’" »

Freedom Plaza briefly found itself this morning at the center of the culture wars, when about 150 folks gathered to protest the D.C. Council's recent vote to recognize same-sex marriages in other states.

Bishop Harry Jackson, a D.C.-resident minister who leads a Bowie, Md.-based flock, assembled the group with the help of the Family Research Council, whose president Tony Perkins appeared today with a group of ministers on the stone expanse across from the John A. Wilson Building.

Protesters carried a variety of neatly made signs bearing such epigrams as, "If We Change Marriage, What Will Be Next?"; "Say No 2 Same-Sex Marriage in D.C."; "Kids Deserve a Mom and a Dad"; and "Think About the Children."

Jackson read a message from evangelical firebrand James Dobson, who urged followers in his statement to "create a Defense of Marriage Act for the District of Columbia."

Cindy Jacobs, "a respected prophet" and frequent 700 Club guest from the Dallas area, took the microphone to tie the day's rally to a debate on hate crimes currently taking place on Capitol Hill. The protest is a civil-right issue, she said, claiming that the federal legislation threatened the ability to oppose gay marriage. She went on to namecheck Martin Luther King's Letter from a Birmingham Jail. "We're not going to give Satan any rest," she cried. "We're not going to give city councils any rest. We're not going to give legislatures any rest."

LL spoke to ten individuals after the 90-minute rally ended. None were current residents of the District of Columbia.

Read More "Anti-Gay Marriage Rally Light on District Residents" »