Although gay marriage will soon be taking place in Washington DC (so long as Congress does not block it, which they are not expected to do), opponents of same-sex marriage have filed suit against the District of Columbia over the DC Board of Elections and Ethics decision to not let gay marriage become a ballot issue.

One the same day that Mayor Fenty was signing the new gay marriage law, the District filed a motion (found below) to have the lawsuit dismissed.

In the 46-page motion, lawyers for the District argue that the DC Board of Elections and Ethics was correct in rejecting the ballot measure in that it violated the DC Human Rights Act by discriminating against GLBT people.  The DC Code does not permit initiatives that “authorize discrimination.”

This is the second attempt by Bishop Jackson — an opponent of gay marriage — to block same-sex marriage in the District. The first suit was filed in hopes of preventing DC from recognizing same-sex marriages performed in other locales.  That suit was dismissed by the judge.

Interestingly, there have been a lot of residency questions about Bishop Jackson.

(Photo courtesy jsmjr’s Flickr photostream http://www.flickr.com/photos/jsmjr/ / CC BY-SA 2.0)

Tags: Discrimination, Gay, Gay Marriage, Gay Rights, Lawsuits, LGBT, Washington DC