Failing the Test on Marriage Equality in DC

This week we flunked a test in support of marriage equality in DC. The "We" I refer to is the gay community.

Rep. Virgil Goode proposed an amendment that would prevent the DC government from spending federal money on domestic partnership registrations. This was a bone to the fundies, as the DC government has never used fed money for this and it's probably already illegal under DOMA. (I'm going to come back to that point in a minute).

Gay activists in DC who oppose moving forward with full marriage equality in the district will likely point to this as an example of why we should sit on our hands on the issue. They have a point -- no one says passage of marriage equality in the district isn't going to be a battle.

But -- we didn't even try. If there was an effective action alert that went out from any gay organization, from the Log Cabin Republicans to the HRC, I didn't see it. I did see HRC issued a press release after the fact and no doubt a fundraising letter. Likewise, did any gay organization lobby on this measure?

Also flunking this week were 40 democratic Congresscritters who voted against us. Repeat mantra: They take our votes, they take our money, but they won't take a stand...

Regarding DOMA -- Some of the arguments for blocking this funding for domestic partnership registry was that DOMA defines marriage as between man and a woman and spouse as someone of the opposite sex.

Stop the presses! This was about domestic partnerships, not marriage. Or are Republicans acknowledging that a DP and Marriage are essentially the same? If so, let's stop squabbling over semantics and let's just call it marriage.