Opponents of same-sex marriage in the District evoked the historic fight for black civil rights during their final appeal before the Board of Elections and Ethics to force a voter referendum.
“It is a great irony that 45 years after the passage of the Voters Rights’ Act, this board has denied the same right to vote… Such assertions really mock the rights that we as African Americans have fought,” Harry Jackson, pastor at the Hope Christian Church, said Wednesday. “We ask the board, stand on the true heritage of this country and let the people vote
The petitioners also slammed gay rights supporters for comparing the struggle for same-sex marriage to the injustices felt by blacks during the civil rights movement.
“Redefining marriage has nothing to do with historic civil rights struggle in this country,” Jackson said. “Have they been forced to sit in the back of buses?… Barred from sitting on juries?”
But Colin MacDonald of Full Equality Now DC said this misrepresents their views. “Frankly speaking I don’t view this as an issue of civil rights; I view this as an issue of human rights,” MacDonald told The Examiner.
The D.C. Council approved a legislation legalizing same-sex marriages on Dec. 12, and Mayor Adrian Fenty signed the bill three days later. If Congress doesn’t act to stop it, city officials have said they expect gay marriage to take place in the District beginning March 2.
This is the third time this year that supporters of traditional marriage have petitioned the board to allow D.C. residents to vote on the issue. Each time the board has ruled against them.
Rev. Anthony Evans, president of the D.C. Black Churches Initiative, asked board members to make their decision process more transparent and “release all correspondence between [board and the mayor’s office] to the public.”
