Norton Announces Countdown Date for Same-Sex Marriage in DC (1/11/2010)

Norton Announces Countdown Date for Same-Sex Marriage in D.C.

January 11, 2010

WASHINGTON, DC - The Office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today announced that tomorrow, when Congress returns, the Congresswoman has begun a 30-Legislative Day Count Down to the day when same-sex couples in the District of Columbia will be permitted to marry. The countdown began last Tuesday, Jan. 5, when the Senate held a pro forma session, and continued today when the House held a pro forma session. The countdown is the lead-up to a Capitol Hill countdown event to be held close to the date the bill becomes final. The Congresswoman has already done the initial work to close the gates on overturning the Religious Freedom and Civil Rights Equality Amendment, "a home rule human rights issue for the District of Columbia alone to determine," she said.

Norton is a long-time advocate for human and civil rights of the LGBT community in general, and of same-sex marriage, in particular. However, the countdown also is part of her push this year to expand home rule as never before in the District, including securing legislative autonomy so that the District, like other states, may pass its own laws without Congressional interference. "This bill should not be on the Hill at all," Norton said. "Home rule is all or it is nothing. We can't pick and choose when Congress can intervene without signaling to Congress to intervene at will. No matter how controversial, matters decided in the District must remain in the District."

The Congresswoman last year succeeded in getting rid of the last of the riders on D.C. Appropriations that would have banned the District from using its own funds for needle exchange programs, abortions for poor women, and medical marijuana. Norton Announces Countdown Date for Same-Sex Marriage in D.C.