Tuesday, March 9, 2010

First Same Sex Marriage in DC

Sinjoyla Townsend and Angelisa Young tied the knot today, becoming the first same-sex couple to marry in Washington DC under the new same-sex marriage law. The couple has been together for over ten years and were first in line to apply for a marriage licnese. they exchanged vows at the headquarters of the Human Rights Campaign, a lobbysit group for homosexual, bisexual, and transgender americans.

The same-sex marriage law was approved by the city council in December, but encountered immediate opposition. It was challenged by residents in a awsuit contending that residents also had a righ tto vote on the law. the lawsuit was rejected by local courts as well as by the US Supreme Court Justice John Roberts, who stated that "It has been the practice of the court to defer to the decisions of the courts of the District of Columbia on matter of exclusively local concerns." He also pointes out that Congress could have voted to stop the district from enacting the law, but refused to do so. DC now joins Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont in allowing same-sex marriages.
I think this new law is a step in the right direction and hopefully more states soon follow suit.

5 comments:

Catherine Riviello said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Catherine Riviello said...

I am so happy to hear that Washington D.C. has now also legalized gay marriage. I agree that this is definitely a step in the right direction, and maybe now that the U.S. capital is allowing
gay marriage, other states will follow this example. I think this opens a lot of doors for homosexual citizens across the country and shows hope for the future. Also maybe now more people will start to realize that it is unfair to deny someone the right to be married to the person they love simply because of their sexual orientation.

Georgia Thomas said...

I agree with you Catherine! Legalizing gay marriage in our capital sends out the right message. I hope California can legalize gay marriage in the future after the devestating results of prop 8.

ArianaR said...

It's great to hear that the nations capital is finally allowing same-sex marriage. I agree completely with both Catherine and Georgia and that watching Washington D.C. legalize gay marriage will put some pressure onto the states to follow suit.
I remember last year after Prop 8 Mr. McGlashan had a class discussion about gay marriage. He made a good point in saying that it takes time for the nation to adjust, and even though our generation doesn't realize it, America has come a long way in becoming more accepting. He said that he has personally seen America progress towards equality, and that it will only take a little bit longer for everyone to realize the injustice that's put upon so many of our citizens.

Victor Sukhovitsky said...

i really admire McGlashan for those talks he gave us, and am happy to see another place in the country that is allowing gay marriage. the sooner the rest of the country gets with the program the better. but again, alot of bs arguments come up on both sides for why it should or should not be called marriage rather than something else such as domestic partnership. and i agree with calling it marriage specifically and only because of the equality factor. for example - if you said you wanted to be married to another of the same sex just so you'd have the tax benefits of marriage - well, thats not cutting it for me. that can be arranged with another name than marriage and thus avoiding angering the entire half of the country that is opposed. but if you said it was because i shouldnt discriminate against you being married just for being homosexual - well that is exactly why i am for gay marriage.