Norton Working Simultaneously in House & Senate as Senate Bill Attempt to Overturn Same Sex Marriage

Norton Working Simultaneously in House and Senate as New Senate Bill Attempts to Overturn D.C. Same-Sex Marriage Act

February 3, 2010

Washington, DC - Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) released the following statement regarding a Utah Republican Senator's bill introduced yesterday, which mirrors a bill introduced last week by his Republican counterpart in the House. Both bills attempt to block the District of Columbia's Religious Freedom and Civil Rights Equality Amendment Act to permit same-sex marriage.

"Disregarding the most basic of American self-government principles, House, and now Senate Members of Congress, are trying to overturn same-sex marriage legislation in the District of Columbia, although it does not, in any way, affect their state or any Americans except our own residents. Opponents will not succeed in Congress because the Democratic majority in the House and Senate exercise principled respect for the District's home rule right to determine its own local laws for its residents. Marriage is a fundamental right in the District, as elsewhere in America, not a political football to be used or abused to score points back home at the expense of the people of the District, and of democratic principles."