DC gay couples and others have been watching the deferred but inescapable action of DC government around the recognition of same-sex couples married in Massachusetts. Will these marriages be recognized in the District of Columbia, a place, according to the Washington Post has more gay residents and couples than any place outside of San Francisco? Where two members of the City Council are gay? A place where even the electable Republicans play to the gay vote?
The problem is that we are politically powerless; we’re the Congress’s plaything, which is to say we’re the Republicans’ plaything. Local politicians have to play very cool, and know that our local autonomy means nothing. Ain’t I an American?
Of course, “paying the price of being American” is rather literal around tax time, and that’s what precipitating the unavoidable crisis. A married gay couple have filed their DC taxes as a married couple. Now, what will DC do?
Now one Senate Republican, Sam Brownback of Kansas, and the head of the appropriations committee that overseas the District budget is rattling his sabre. The Washington Post reports on this today, and is worth reading: District Warned On Gay Marriage
Kansans: the District of Columbia needs you to call this senator and tell him that what he’s contemplating is wrong. We deserve to govern ourselves without threat.
