Today the City Council of Washington, D.C., the Capitol of the United States, voted 11-2 to allow same sex marriage. Mayor Adrian Fenty has promised to sign the bill into law.
As with any laws passed in D.C., the U.S. Congress has 30 days in which to review it, but Congressional leaders have apparently indicated that they won't be weighing in on this particular law. This means that Washington D.C., though not a state in its own right, will be joining the five states that currently (or, in New Hampshire's case, will soon) have full marriage equality.
The leading force behind this was Council Member David Catania, who is himself openly gay and who voted "I do!" today.
It would be easy, of course, to remember this year for the setbacks in California (where Prop 8 was upheld by the State Supreme Court), Maine, and New York, but let's not forget that it was also the year that saw Iowa, Vermont, New Hampshire, and now Washington, D.C. legalize same sex marriage.
Even more notable was that most of these states (including Maine, where it was later overturned) legalized it not through the court system but through the legislature. The only exception to this was Iowa, where the victory was won in the State Supreme Court. Even there, though, the majority in the legislature refused to overturn the State Supreme Court's ruling by changing the state constitution.
It's nice to end 2009 with a victory in the fight for Marriage Equality to remind us of what a big year it really was. Let's hope that it is a sign of more to come in 2010!
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