Hill Republicans join fight against D.C. gay marriage

Republican congressional leaders have joined local activists in a court fight to allow voters to decide whether same-sex marriage should be legal in the District, underscoring the continued uncertainty surrounding the issue.

Same-sex marriage supporters and opponents faced off in D.C. Superior Court for a hearing Wednesday on whether the city should be required to allow a ballot initiative that would define marriage as being between a man and a woman.

Thirty-nine GOP legislators, including 37 members of the House and two senators, James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), have filed an amicus brief supporting a public vote on the issue. The House members include Minority Leader John A. Boehner (Ohio) and Minority Whip Eric Cantor (Va.).

The filing asserts that the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics exceeded its authority by ruling twice that a public vote would discriminate against gay men and lesbians.

If there is a vote, liberals are the first to say that every vote should count. In many places they want them to count up to 10 times just to be sure.

HOWEVER< when the people get together and demand to put to a vote anything related to abortion or gays or marriage or budgets liberals say we are stupid and require their brilliance or a liberal judge to TELL us SLAVES what right they will allow us.

Liberals: Proving every day that slavery is allowable as long as they are the masters.

I know DC and it’s people. If this is put to a vote in DC, the queers will win. Not that there arent some good people in DC, it’s just that they are in the minority. You have to remember this is Marion Barry’s town.

You do realize that Hizonner the Mayor for Life voted against the bill, don't you? See this WaPo article that talks about it.

See, I'm not so sure that such a measure would pass if it were put on a ballot for a referendum. While it is true that the queers have a lot of power in the city, frankly, they only make up about 7-8% of the population. Blacks make up about 55-60% of the population.

Almost 100% of the Black preachers are opposed to this gay marriage bill. And the Catholic Archdiocese has come down against it (in stronger terms than I've ever heard Wuerl say anything).

So here's how I see it going down:

The Blacks and Hispanics and Orientals will come down against it by about 75% - 25% (if not more).

White Catholics will be fairly evenly split 50%-50%. (Those who are more Catholic than Democratic would be against it and those who are more Democratic than Catholic would be in favor of it...especially if they could prove they are independent of the Catholic hierarchy)

White Seculars working in government will be in favor of it about 75%-25%.

Academics will be in favor of it about 90%-10%. (With 4 universities in the town (G-town, GWU, Howard, CUA), that is not an insignificant number of people)

So bottom line is that I think if everybody was to vote, it would fail by about 60%-40%.

So, then, the question comes down to turnout. And I think the black pastors are absolutely energized by this and I think that they would have a HUGE turn-out-the-vote campaign (moreso than what they had for BO even).

Of course, the 33,000 queers in DC would all turn out, but I'm not sure how energized those who would sympathize with them would be ("sure, I want to see gay marriage, but, House is on tonight")

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